Opinion: Hard vs. Soft Power in the Hong Kong Protests
The Hong Kong protests began in late March of this year in response to a proposed bill amendment that sparked fears of China freely infringing on Hong Kong’s autonomy. The More
Opinion: Canada Is Ready for Real Democracy
In his first throne speech as Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau promised that 2015 would be the last federal election conducted under the single-member plurality (SMP) voting system. But after fourteen More
Political Theatrics: Relaxing Party Discipline
The Canadian political system is often argued to be controlled by excessive party discipline flowing from the centre of government onto elected members of Parliament. The tendency of political parties, More
Op-Ed: India’s Choice – Slow & Steady Progress vs. Corruption and Incompetence
Last week, Indians began voting to elect the 17th Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) in the largest democratic election in human history. India’s right wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi More
The New Jim Crow: Voter Suppression in the 2018 Midterms
While the original U.S Constitution only provided for limited suffrage for white males, five amendments have expanded voting rights in the country since. These include the 15th Amendment, which provided More
Freedom of Speech: Platforms, Constraints and Megaphones
Fifty years ago, Isaiah Berlin made an important contribution to the field of political theory with his speech “Two Concepts of Liberty” where he distinguished between positive and negative liberty. More
A Future Unknown: The Liberal World Order
Before Trump officially assumed office, foreign policy pundits were deeply divided. Half believed that Pax Americana was history, and so was the global liberal order. The other half deemed the More
Democratic Disillusion: Electoral Politics and Structural Redress
Introduction: A Case Study in Democratic Deception In February 2016, Trudeau approved the Kinder Morgan pipeline, despite his government’s supposed dedication to adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on More
Canada’s Intra-party Democracy Deficit
The term “democratic deficit” is used by political analysts to describe political institutions whose level of democracy fails to reach theoretical standards of democratic governance. The term has widely been More
Direct Democracy: A Healthy Alternative to Unresponsive Representatives
The belief that democracy is not a perfect system of government has been articulated by both political theorists and regular citizens, and is a recurrent motif in public discourse after More