Elections Archives - Public Seminar

North America

When Politicians Make Nice

A conversation with sociologist Julia Sonnevend about her new book, Charm: How Magnetic Personalities Shape Global Politics

September 11, 2024 • by Claire Potter and Julia Sonnevend

When United States president Joe Biden stumbled on the debate stage on June 27, 2024, it wasn’t that he just seemed old, it was that a man who had charmed voters for half a century with his bright smile, kindness, and folksy quips seemed to have vanished. ...

Democracy

The 2023 Turkish Elections—A Roller Coaster Ride between Hope and Despair

The opponents of Erdogan feel “ghosted” by their leaders

June 14, 2023 • by Selin Bengi Gümrükçü

About a week after the runoff of the Turkish presidential elections in 2023, I had a vivid dream. In this dream, the elections extended to a third round, scheduled for a few weeks later, and the dates for diaspora voting were yet to be released. As a diaspora voter myself, ...

The 2023 Turkish Elections—A Roller Coaster Ride between Hope and Despair

Democracy

Is Europe’s Democracy in Crisis?

Europe’s democracy is in a good place, but technological changes are challenging it

April 10, 2023 • by Filip Kostelka

Democracy is currently not in crisis and, in fact, we live in one of its best times....

Democracy

The Only Way War in Ukraine Can End

On Jessica Pisano’s Staging Democracy and the function of political theater

March 28, 2023 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb, James Miller and Jessica Pisano

Zelenskyy’s approach to political leadership has been focused on creating conditions that allow people to self-mobilize and self-govern....

<strong>The Only Way War in Ukraine Can End</strong>

Activism

Historic Women’s Rally in NYC Five Days Before the Election

A photo essay

November 7, 2022 • by Jo Freeman

Seven top Democratic women and one man spoke at a Women’s Vote rally at Barnard College on November 3. All but one were New York elected officials. Many were “firsts” in their jobs. The sheer number of women officials was historic by itself. This rally illustrated that having many women ...

Historic Women’s Rally in NYC Five Days Before the Election

Politics

The Elusive Latino Voter

History reconsidered

September 22, 2022 • by Claire Potter

One place to understand how Republicans have stumbled when it comes to Latino voters is the attempt by the Reagan administration to simultaneously declare an end to racism in 1980—mission accomplished!—and woo Latinos as a racial group because they presented as religious and more socially conservative. Yet, as White House ...

Politics

A New Deal for Colombia

The country’s first left wing government and its hopes for reconciliation

July 6, 2022 • by Aura Angélica Hernández Cárdenas

"On August 7th, 2022, Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez, the first Black woman to serve in high office, will lead the country’s first left-wing government. Their rise to power mirrors the resurgence of various left-wing politicians in other parts of Latin America, which is undergoing a striking ideological shift."...

Europe & Central Asia

Goodbye Merkel, Hello … Who?

The German election and what’s to come

September 29, 2021 • by Nicolas Allié

One thing is clear about the 2021 German election: it is going to be consequential. Long-time chancellor and ostensible champion of democratic values, Angela Merkel, is leaving after 16 years in office. The consequences of this action are still uncertain. Germany’s electoral system is unique. Voters elect representatives to the German parliament, or Bundestag, and they cast two votes. The first is for who will represent ...

Politics

How the Left Took Power in Peru

Castillo imagines a new politics

June 23, 2021 • by César J. Castillo García

_____ In his closing statement as a leading candidate in Peru’s last presidential debate on May 30th in Arequipa, Pedro Castillo, the favorite of the left-wing Perú Libre (PL) party, promised that if he became President, there would be “no more poor people in a rich country.” The second-biggest producer of copper ...

Politics

The Perfect Dictatorship

The perfect dictatorship is not one in which there are no elections. The perfect dictatorship is one in which the government does not lose elections

June 2, 2021 • by Francisco Rodríguez

_____ It was during the presidency of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, whom many saw as one of the champions of economic reforms (even today, some people remember him that way), that Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa decided to break one of the unwritten rules of Mexican politics. In a televised discussion ...

Democracy

Why is Caitlyn Jenner Running for Governor of California?

Recall campaigns, invented to remove incompetent or corrupt politicians, are now a conservative tactic to reverse Democratic electoral victories

May 5, 2021 • by Claire Potter

On April 22, Caitlyn Jenner announced that she had filed paperwork to register herself as a candidate for Governor of California in a recall election against the sitting governor, Gavin Newsom. The organizers will likely meet the threshold of verified signatures, and the election is likely to be scheduled for early fall. Even ...

Why is Caitlyn Jenner Running for Governor of California?

Democracy

Hopeful New Year!

Five Notes Against Despair, 2021

January 14, 2021 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

The Covid-19 pandemic is spreading and is ineffectively controlled, as is the global political pandemic, spectacularly on view in Washington, D.C. White supremacy and politicized misogyny, homophobia and transphobia are becoming ever more virulent, supporting an ascendent right-wing authoritarianism around the world. Economic and social inequalities are increasing, as police ...