In 2024, nearly half the world’s population, including citizens of the eight most populous nations, voted or will vote in elections. While this signals democratic engagement, many elections are run by autocratic or illiberal regimes pursuing self-serving agendas. Paradoxically thus, as elections are generalising as a practice, democracy is met with growing defiance. On closer scrutiny, however, it appears that it is not only the indicators of democracy but also those of elections that have been declining over the past decade. This dossier, produced with the Albert Hirschman Centre for Democracy, examines the essential role of elections in the construction of democracy today.
© Chappatte, Der Spiegel www.chappatte.com
A pandemic is not just a medical emergency – it is also a political, economic, and social crisis. It implies new challenges for democratic institutions and practices, for citizenship rights and human rights as some of the restrictions on civil liberties put in place by liberal and illiberal democracies may well outlive the coronavirus. This special issue explores some tensions and dilemmas of democracies faced with the current crisis. “Politics of the Coronavirus Pandemics” addresses questions like: Can we speak of a decline in politics during the pandemic? While states have been using the full gamut of their sovereign prerogatives, has the political (temporarily) faded in the face of, for example, “expertise”? What will be the lasting impact of the rule by administrative fiat, and of emergency powers put in place in many countries? What kinds of agenda and instruments of civic activism are likely to emerge given that courts are rarely in session and public protest not permitted due to distancing rules? What are the likely consequences of these reconfigurations for democracy, governance, and welfare systems in the global South and North?
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I
Covid-19: A Modern Apocalypse or a Temporary Shock to the System?
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1
The Vaccine Race: Will Public Health Prevail over Geopolitics?
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2
Institutions under Stress: Covid-19, Anti-Internationalism and the Futures of Global Governance
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3
Covid-19 and Even More Unconventional Economic Policies
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4
Covid-19 and States of Emergency
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5
Pandemic as Revelation: What Does It Tell Us about People on the Move?
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6
Pandemic and Political Geographies
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7
The Western Flu: The Coronavirus Pandemic as a Eurocentric Crisis
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8
A Gendered Perspective on the Pandemic
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9
A National-Liberal Virus
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10
Depoliticising through Expertise: The Politics of Modelling in the Governance of Covid-19
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11
The Politics of Covid Apps
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12
Human Rights and Covid-19
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13
Emergency Use of Public Funds: Implications for Democratic Governance
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14
Unequal Impacts of Covid-19: Political and Social Consequences
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15
Covid, Hysteresis, and the Future of Work
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16
Populism 4.0 and Decent Digiwork
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