Category: democracy
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Chilling Effects
Chilling Effects Younger Americans have soured on the second Donald Trump presidency, but they are not protesting it. Despite an unpopular Iran war and an even more unpopular Trump administration, college campus protests nationwide have gone silent. And at many schools, student activism is virtually nonexistent. This silence comes in the wake of a relentless…
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As the US Midterms Approach, AI Is Going to Emerge as a Key Issue Concerning Voters
As the US Midterms Approach, AI Is Going to Emerge as a Key Issue Concerning Voters In December, the Trump administration signed an executive order that neutered states’ ability to regulate AI by ordering his administration to both sue and withhold funds from states that try to do so. This action pointedly supported industry lobbyists…
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Team Mirai and Democracy
Team Mirai and Democracy Japan’s election last month and the rise of the country’s newest and most innovative political party, Team Mirai, illustrates the viability of a different way to do politics. In this model, technology is used to make democratic processes stronger, instead of undermining them. It is harnessed to root out corruption, instead…
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Is AI Good for Democracy?
Is AI Good for Democracy? Politicians fixate on the global race for technological supremacy between US and China. They debate geopolitical implications of chip exports, latest model releases from each country, and military applications of AI. Someday, they believe, we might see advancements in AI tip the scales in a superpower conflict. But the most…
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Are We Ready to Be Governed by Artificial Intelligence?
Are We Ready to Be Governed by Artificial Intelligence? Artificial Intelligence (AI) overlords are a common trope in science-fiction dystopias, but the reality looks much more prosaic. The technologies of artificial intelligence are already pervading many aspects of democratic government, affecting our lives in ways both large and small. This has occurred largely without our…
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Four Ways AI Is Being Used to Strengthen Democracies Worldwide
Four Ways AI Is Being Used to Strengthen Democracies Worldwide Democracy is colliding with the technologies of artificial intelligence. Judging from the audience reaction at the recent World Forum on Democracy in Strasbourg, the general expectation is that democracy will be the worse for it. We have another narrative. Yes, there are risks to democracy…
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AI and Voter Engagement
AI and Voter Engagement Social media has been a familiar, even mundane, part of life for nearly two decades. It can be easy to forget it was not always that way. In 2008, social media was just emerging into the mainstream. Facebook reached 100 million users that summer. And a singular candidate was integrating social…
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Will AI Strengthen or Undermine Democracy?
Will AI Strengthen or Undermine Democracy? Listen to the Audio on NextBigIdeaClub.com Below, co-authors Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders share five key insights from their new book, Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship. What’s the big idea? AI can be used both for and against the public interest within…
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AI and the Future of American Politics
AI and the Future of American Politics Two years ago, Americans anxious about the forthcoming 2024 presidential election were considering the malevolent force of an election influencer: artificial intelligence. Over the past several years, we have seen plenty of warning signs from elections worldwide demonstrating how AI can be used to propagate misinformation and alter…
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AI in the 2026 Midterm Elections
AI in the 2026 Midterm Elections We are nearly one year out from the 2026 midterm elections, and it’s far too early to predict the outcomes. But it’s a safe bet that artificial intelligence technologies will once again be a major storyline. The widespread fear that AI would be used to manipulate the 2024 U.S.…
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How Cybersecurity Fears Affect Confidence in Voting Systems
How Cybersecurity Fears Affect Confidence in Voting Systems American democracy runs on trust, and that trust is cracking. Nearly half of Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, question whether elections are conducted fairly. Some voters accept election results only when their side wins. The problem isn’t just political polarization—it’s a creeping erosion of trust in the…
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The Voter Experience
The Voter Experience Technology and innovation have transformed every part of society, including our electoral experiences. Campaigns are spending and doing more than at any other time in history. Ever-growing war chests fuel billions of voter contacts every cycle. Campaigns now have better ways of scaling outreach methods and offer volunteers and donors more efficient…
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Reimagining Democracy
Reimagining Democracy Imagine that all of us—all of society—have landed on some alien planet and need to form a government: clean slate. We do not have any legacy systems from the United States or any other country. We do not have any special or unique interests to perturb our thinking. How would we govern ourselves?…
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AI and Civil Service Purges
AI and Civil Service Purges Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s chaotic approach to reform is upending government operations. Critical functions have been halted, tens of thousands of federal staffers are being encouraged to resign, and congressional mandates are being disregarded. The next phase: The Department of Government Efficiency reportedly wants to use AI to cut…
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Third Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy (IWORD 2024)
Third Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy (IWORD 2024) Last month, Henry Farrell and I convened the Third Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy (IWORD 2024) at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg Center in Washington DC. This is a small, invitational workshop on the future of democracy. As with the previous two workshops, the goal was to bring…
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Algorithms Are Coming for Democracy—but It’s Not All Bad
Algorithms Are Coming for Democracy—but It’s Not All Bad In 2025, AI is poised to change every aspect of democratic politics—but it won’t necessarily be for the worse. India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has used AI to translate his speeches for his multilingual electorate in real time, demonstrating how AI can help diverse democracies to…