Policy-making and political decisions in democracies often take time and involve compromise. But partisan politics and short-termism among political leaders and political parties can cause policy failure and gridlock.
Attila Ágh from Corvinus University of Budapest examines the status of the democracies that emerged in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1989.
The Australian's Paul Kelly wonders how long it will be before we have a public debate in Australia about what he describes as a broken political system.
Robyn Eckersley of the University of Melbourne argues that the Anthropocene, an epoch of human-driven planetary change, should prompt us to address the lack of democratic accountability in the area of ecology and environmental protection.
The Melbourne School of Government's Helen Sullivan asks whether governments have the capacity to act when the public doesn't trust politicians and politics.
Marc Abrahams highlights in The Guardian how selecting elected representatives randomly rather than through political party systems could make democracies work better.
