Best Democracy

Maria Ressa is a Filipino-American journalist and CEO of Rappler, a digital news platform in the Philippines. She has been a vocal advocate for press freedom and has faced significant legal challenges...

Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and a key architect of American democracy. His ideas on individual liberty, the separation of church and state, and the role...

Nelson Mandela, a pivotal figure in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, spent 27 years imprisoned for his activism. Upon his release, he spearheaded the transition to a multiracial democracy,...

Joseph Stiglitz argues that inequality is not an inevitable outcome of market forces but a result of political choices and rent-seeking. He demonstrates how extreme inequality undermines democracy, st...

The Ancient Greek Civilization, cradle of Western philosophy, democracy, and drama, profoundly shaped art, literature, and political thought. Their development of democracy, albeit limited, influenced...

Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, recognized for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace. She founded the Green Belt Movement, which f...

Walt Whitman is the father of American free verse. With 'Leaves of Grass,' he shattered the formal constraints of his era, embracing a sprawling, inclusive, and celebratory style that mirrored the Ame...

Aung San Suu Kyi spent decades as a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Myanmar. Under house arrest for nearly 15 years, she became a global icon of peaceful resistance against military dictatorsh...

Bonnie Honig's work challenges conventional understandings of political resistance and democratic theory. She argues for the importance of 'negative politics' forms of dissent and critique that expos...

George Soros, through the Open Society Foundations, supports democracy, human rights, and social justice initiatives globally. His philanthropy is often controversial due to its involvement in politic...

Lech Walesa was the leader of the Solidarity movement in Poland, the first independent trade union in a Soviet-bloc country. His leadership of the strikes at the Gdansk Shipyard challenged the communi...

Jean-Jacques Rousseaus 'The Social Contract' is a seminal work on the nature of democracy and the relationship between the individual and the state. He argues that legitimate political authority rests...

Pierre Omidyar, co-founder of eBay, directs his philanthropy through Omidyar Network, which focuses on impact investing and supporting democratic institutions. They invest in businesses and organizati...

Vaclav Havel was a playwright and dissident who became the moral conscience of the Czechoslovakian resistance against communism. His essay, 'The Power of the Powerless,' provided a philosophical frame...

Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson argue that the rise of extreme inequality in the US is the result of deliberate political choices and the influence of organized interests. They show how policy changes h...

Malka Older's *Infomocracy* presents a near-future world where democracies are governed by data and algorithms. The novel follows a woman who becomes entangled in a political conspiracy. Its focus on...

Julian Assange's talk explores the challenges facing democracy in the digital age, focusing on issues of transparency, censorship, and government surveillance. He argues that the increasing concentrat...

Jürgen Habermas is a leading figure in the Frankfurt School and a major voice in contemporary political and social theory. His work on 'communicative action' and the 'public sphere' provides a framewo...

The Washington Post, awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for its coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, played a vital role in uncovering a serious...

The Council of Europe is an international organization focused on promoting human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in Europe. It oversees the European Convention on Human Rights and works to pro...