Democracy – Openforum https://www.openforum.com.au Open Forum offers an independent platform for Australian debate Thu, 28 Mar 2024 22:27:37 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.25 Listen to the people https://www.openforum.com.au/listen-to-the-people/ Sat, 02 Mar 2024 20:35:51 +0000 https://www.openforum.com.au/?p=46846 Although he once quipped that "You can never plan the future by the past" could the work of 18th-century political theorist Edmund Burke, famed for his cautionary take on the French Revolution, help modern democracies escape their current malaise?

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The year of the fake election https://www.openforum.com.au/the-year-of-the-fake-election/ Tue, 30 Jan 2024 22:54:03 +0000 https://www.openforum.com.au/?p=46347 Eight of the ten most populous countries in the world – Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia and the United States - will hold elections in 2024, but far from celebrating democracy, many of these exercises will merely rubber stamp the governing regime in polls which are neither free nor fair.

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Reimagining democracy https://www.openforum.com.au/reimagining-democracy/ Tue, 08 Aug 2023 21:40:54 +0000 https://www.openforum.com.au/?p=44026 Social media and artificial intelligence are often framed as threats to liberal democracy, but new technology could also be used to revitalise and modernise democratic interactions.

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Democracy in decline? https://www.openforum.com.au/democracy-in-decline/ Wed, 07 Jun 2023 01:23:09 +0000 https://www.openforum.com.au/?p=43042 The ascendancy of democracy seemed assured after the collapse of Soviet domination in Europe but after reaching a zenith in 2012, there are now fewer democracies, fewer people live in democracies, and most established democracies have veered towards more authoritarian responses.

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Challenges to Pacific democracy https://www.openforum.com.au/challenges-to-pacific-democracy/ Wed, 04 Jan 2023 00:23:28 +0000 https://www.openforum.com.au/?p=41020 Democratic norms and practices have a solid foundation in the Pacific, but the events of 2022 prove that this cannot be taken for granted.

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Tackling Australian corruption https://www.openforum.com.au/tackling-australian-corruption/ Tue, 27 Dec 2022 21:21:58 +0000 https://www.openforum.com.au/?p=40713 Australia will roll out a new national anti-corruption body after the country recorded its worst ever score on an index that ranks anti-corruption measures worldwide.

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A bad year for the bad guys https://www.openforum.com.au/a-bad-year-for-the-bad-guys/ Fri, 23 Dec 2022 20:26:06 +0000 https://www.openforum.com.au/?p=40880 The death-knell for democracy is always being tolled, but the weakness and folly of authoritarian rule has proved itself this year, epitomised by the Russian dictator's disastrous invasion of its democratic neighbour, Ukraine.

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Democracy v the dictators https://www.openforum.com.au/democracy-v-the-dictators/ Thu, 22 Dec 2022 22:23:05 +0000 https://www.openforum.com.au/?p=40931 Just as autocracies ally with each other to stay in power, so the world's democracies must unite against the current tide of tyranny.

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The end of democracy? https://www.openforum.com.au/the-end-of-democracy/ Sun, 11 Dec 2022 19:16:20 +0000 https://www.openforum.com.au/?p=40760 A number of social, international and technological trends are converging to threaten the democracy and social cohesion we have taken for granted for decades.

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#Democracy https://www.openforum.com.au/democracy/ Tue, 08 Nov 2022 20:35:24 +0000 https://www.openforum.com.au/?p=40251 There are two common ways of thinking about democracy in the online era. First, the internet is a liberation technology and will usher in an era of global democracy. Second, you can have social media or democracy, but not both.

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Celebrating Australian democracy https://www.openforum.com.au/celebrating-australian-democracy/ Tue, 30 Aug 2022 20:55:35 +0000 https://www.openforum.com.au/?p=39067 In seeking to safeguard our democracy, we must consider the extent to which Australians’ long-standing apathy about our democratic system allowed Morrison to treat it with such contempt.

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Standing up the the strong men https://www.openforum.com.au/standing-up-the-the-strong-men/ Mon, 13 Jun 2022 22:35:36 +0000 https://www.openforum.com.au/?p=37788 The threat posed by authoritarian states demands a robust response from the world's democracies and we must not allow their victims to fight on alone.

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