What Do Indian Women Want from This Election?

They’re Voting in Historic Numbers. But It Might Not Make Them Happier or More Prosperous

Since April 19, the day general elections began in India, voters have queued up outside polling booths, braving a muggy, scorching heatwave. The mood appears mostly upbeat. Voters talk to TV news reporters. They articulate wishes for change or belief in the incumbent leader.

This year’s election is the largest, and longest, in India’s 60 years of increasingly fragile democracy. Nearly a billion people are eligible to vote, in seven phases, over 44 days.

In voting thus far, women have outnumbered men in several states, and have made up nearly half of …

This Korean Election Shows How Fragile Our Democracy Is

Our Economic Culture Has Isolated Us. Our Politics Have Divided Us. Now We’re Backsliding

More than three decades after South Korea’s democratic transition, we thought we had consolidated our democratic progress. We imagined that our democracy was strong and would grow stronger.

We are learning …

Seeking a Politics of Solidarity in Putin’s Russia

In a Country Where Nothing Changes, a 23-Year-Old Finds Hope Outside the Electoral System

In 2013, when I was 13, one of the oldest comedy TV programs in Russia released a sketch in which a group of musicians performed a version of Queen’s “I …

On the Campaign Trail With a Russian Antiwar Candidate

Thousands of People Came Out to Support Boris Nadezhdin’s Presidential Run. They Refuse to Lose Hope

In December 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin officially announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. It had long been clear that he had plans to aim for his fifth …

A tight crowd of men and women, some sitting down, some standing. Political banners and pictures are seen above the people.

In Dhaka, the Roadblocks to Democracy Are Roadblocks

As the Election Looms in Bangladesh, Blockades Are More Than a Metaphor for the Obstacles Facing Voters

It’s election season in Bangladesh—the roads are closed, vehicles are burning, and the threat of violence is close.

As I write these sentences, the country’s chief opposition party—the Bangladesh Nationalist Party …