It Takes More Than a Naked Katy Perry to Get Out the Vote

Ranking Candidates Gives People What They Want: a Choice, a Party, and Tighter Elections

Katy Perry’s new Rock the Vote video offers a great strategy for encouraging engagement in democracy—prurient interest. She tries to vote naked, and ends up being arrested and taken away. But a strong message is left: You can vote wearing whatever you want—“Just wear clothes.”

Perry’s home state, California, is full of celebrity calls to get to the polls, clothed and unclothed. But such stunts obscure the essential problem with voting in the United States—too often our electoral rules actually discourage participation in elections.

I know something both about publicity, and about …

By Krist Novoselic | November 3, 2016

What California Can Learn From Stockton’s Debt

The Bankrupted City Underscores the Risk of Unchecked Borrowing Habits

By Joe Mathews | November 3, 2016

Here’s a new maxim for Californians to live by, courtesy of this election: Don’t dismiss apocalyptic warnings from Stockton.

If you’re a Californian with a television or a mailbox, you’re encountering …

Brexit Is Spelled T-R-U-M-P in America

A Hatred of Outsiders Unites Anti-Globalizers Around the World

By Philippa Levine | October 31, 2016

Donald Trump is America’s Brexit. Whoever wins the presidential election, Trump’s candidacy has made possible a level of public incivility that we’ve not seen in this country for many years. …

How Latin America Emerged from Its Populist Decade

A New Generation of Technocrats Is Embracing Rational Orthodoxy Over Ideology

By Jana Nelson | October 31, 2016

There’s hope to the south.

As Europe and the United States are grappling with the rise of bombastic populism, the region that’s long excelled in the genre above all others—Trump …

Much Like Alcohol, Democracy Is Best in Moderation

Representative Governments Protect the Public from Its Own Ignorance

By Jason Brennan | October 31, 2016

The open secret of democracy is that it works because it doesn’t quite work as advertised. Representative democracies do not simply impose the will of the people. They over-perform, producing …

The Shame of Living in an Authoritarian Democracy

In Hungary, Nationalist Politicians Help Themselves (and Their Lovers) to the Spoils of Power

By Csaba Madarasz | October 31, 2016

I was a young man studying journalism when conversation about the first Fidesz government in Hungary broke into our dining room. It ended with a dead political silence in my …

Here Are Two Voting Reforms That Could Counter America’s Hyperpolarization

When Used Together, ‘Ranked Choice’ and ‘Top Two’ Elections Would Strengthen Major Parties and Favor Moderate Politicians

Are California Elections a Triumph of Democracy—or a Defeat?

The Golden State Keeps Making It Easier to Vote, and Harder to Understand What to Vote For

I’ll Vote, But First, Let Me Take A Selfie

Snapping and Sharing a Photo of Your Ballot Is Good for Democracy

Your Recall Confusion Is Part of a Much Bigger Problem

California’s Elections ‘Don’t Match How Human Beings Think, Choose, and Vote’

Get More Zócalo