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Category - democracy

  • 2 May 2013
    Civil service privatisation damages democracy

    Sections of the UK civil service are to be privatised. Unions have raised concerns about the impact on staff pay and conditions. Such a move also raises serious questions about accountability to the public and democracy.

  • 3 Feb 2013
    A political solution is the only way to end the Syria conflict

    Syrians can only overcome conflict with a political solution, strong democratic institutions and demilitarisation, says a prominent human rights defender.

  • 24 Jan 2013
    Sri Lanka bishop laments loss of democracy

    The Anglican Bishop of Colombo has called for a Time of Lament, after Sri Lanka’s chief justice was unlawfully removed by the ruling regime.

  • 16 Jan 2013
    Sri Lanka: defending democracy as chief justice impeached

    Sri Lanka is facing a constitutional crisis after the chief justice was impeached, in a process ruled unlawful by the supreme court. The bid by cabinet members to replace her with one of their own legal advisers has been widely criticised as an attack on the independence of the judiciary. Pro-democracy activists are challenging the move, despite the danger they face from an increasingly dictatorial regime.

  • 20 Nov 2012
    Buccaneering, deal making and democracy: Cameron at the CBI

    “A buccaneering, deal making, hungry spirit”. These are the qualities which our Prime Minister advocated in his speech to the CBI recently (19 November 2012).

  • 7 Nov 2012
    Ballot initiatives in US states: an issues guide

    There is a whole raft of initiatives and referendums on state ballots. We offer a summary here, with comments where appropriate on issues of social justice relating to these proposals.

  • 14 Oct 2012
    A positive Orthodox Christian theology of democracy

    In The Mystical as Political: Democracy and Non-Radical Orthodoxy, to be published on 25 October 2012, Aristotle Papanikolaou explores the question of whether Orthodox Christianity and liberal democracy are mutually exclusive worldviews.

  • 24 Sep 2012
    Manners and the Minister: the insolence of power

    It may appear graceless to ask the question, but how likely is it that Andrew Mitchell would have managed even the evasive partial apology heard today if he had thought he could get away with his arrogant loutishness towards officers of the Diplomatic Protection Group and retain his job?

  • 30 Jun 2012
    New research exposes true price of House of Lords patronage

    Unlock Democracy has published research which reveals that dozens of members of the House of Lords claimed many thousands of pounds tax free in 2011.

  • 29 Jun 2012
    Rowan Williams is wrong: we need an elected second chamber

    The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, argued in his recent Magna Carta lecture against the idea of a fully elected second chamber at Westminster. As the debate about Lords reform continues, political theologian Graeme Smith seeks to show why the Archbishop is wrong to put his faith in an oligarchic form of democracy rather than one based on full electoral accountability.