News and views from the Blavatnik School of Government community 
Across the world, election management bodies (EMBs) operate as bulwarks of the democratic process. By superintending electoral competition, EMBs uphold democratic values, influence political behaviour and shape the character of democratic institutions. These daunting tasks vest substantial responsibility in electoral institutions to ensure decisions, policies and programmes are guided by […]
When citizens of the United States go to the polls next month, they will be engaged in an act of faith. They don’t know what will happen in the election or in the weeks, months and years after their election. Like believers lighting a votive candle in a church to […]
Whenever a corruption scandal hits the headlines, public attention tends to gravitate towards identifying the resources that have gone missing and the scoundrels responsible. Corruption often triggers collective moral outrage, and, at least where the problem is not systemic, it can motivate citizens to hold public officials to account. But […]
In any presidential campaign, candidates running for president announce their ticket partner for vice president. At least that seems to be the rule of thumb everywhere, but Argentina. For the first time in Argentine history, a candidate running for vice president announced their formula partner for the upcoming elections in […]
On Wednesday 25 July, Pakistan held its general election which resulted in Imran Khan’s victory after a controversial political campaign. We have asked some of our Pakistani alumni for their thoughts about the election. Wasif Rehman is a current Master of Public Policy student (MPP 2017) and the recipient of […]
April 23th 2018 marked an incredibly important milestone in the history of Armenia and perhaps in the history of the whole post-Soviet space. After 11 days of peaceful protests demanding the resignation of newly elected prime minister Serzh Sargsyan, he resigned, wishing peace and harmony to the Armenian nation. It […]
“Don’t get mad, get even.” That aphorism needs to become the new norm in democratic politics across Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Rather than complaining about populist successes, established political parties should take a page from the populist playbook. Three lessons, in particular, cry out for attention. The first […]
It seems reasonable to assume that progressive policies help each other along. That, for example, programmes to improve transparency and lower corruption go hand in hand with efforts to encourage more women to stand for political office. But is this assumption justified? And what if the opposite were sometimes the […]