Framing ethical perspectives
Democracy is a form of government in which political control is given to the people, whether directly or through the election of governing officials. Currently, large numbers of people have lost faith in this form of government and some elected officials have been working to dismantle democratic institutions. Our programs, events, and experts strive to better understand this development.
Featured Democracy Resources
State of global democracy, U.S. global engagement, and more
FEB 6, 2026 • Article
Trump and the Gaslighting of American Realism
APR 9, 2026 • Article
Realism vs. Pragmatism: Understanding America’s New Rhetorical Landscape
Amid Trump's fiery rhetoric and debates over "realism," Professor Jason Ralph writes that "pragmatism" may offer a better alternative for the American public.
SEP 11, 2025 • Video
Post-Liberal American Power
In the first event in our "Values & Interests" series, an expert panel examines the question: Has Trump 2.0 ushered in an era of post-liberal American power?
Related Initiatives
Ethics & International Affairs Journal
Ethics & International Affairs is the quarterly journal of Carnegie Council. It aims to close the gap between the theory and practice of ethics.
Explore Our Democracy Resources
MAY 1, 2019 • Podcast
Global Ethics Weekly: Citizenship, Social Media, & the Indian Election, with Kavitha Rajagopalan
Senior Fellow Kavitha Rajagopalan discusses the ongoing Indian election through the complicated lens of citizenship and explains the vast power of political organizing and social ...
APR 23, 2019 • Podcast
How Change Happens, with Cass Sunstein
From the French Revolution to the Arab Spring to #MeToo, how does social change happen? In a book that was 25 years in the making, Cass ...
APR 22, 2019 • Podcast
Human Rights, Liberalism, & Ordinary Virtues, with Michael Ignatieff
Central European University's President Michael Ignatieff is a human rights scholar, an educator, a former politician, and, as he tells us, the son of a ...
APR 4, 2019 • Podcast
China's Influence on Democracies in Asia, with Joshua Kurlantzick
As part of Carnegie Council's Information Warfare podcast series, Devin Stewart interviews Joshua Kurlantzick about his recent project on Chinese media and influence campaigns and ...
APR 1, 2019 • Article
Democratic Decline?
We are familiar with one type of democratic decline: the loss of faith by voters in institutions and politicians, the breakdown in trust in expertise ...
MAR 28, 2019 • Podcast
Global Ethics Weekly: Liberal Democracy, Empathy, & AI, with Alexander Görlach
In this wide-ranging talk, Carnegie Council Senior Fellow Alexander Görlach discusses the importance of empathy in liberal democracies, the shocking Uyghur detention in China, ...
MAR 26, 2019 • Podcast
The Crack-Up: Egypt & the Wilsonian Moment, with Erez Manela
For about 18 months after World War I there was what historian Erez Manela calls the "Wilsonian moment"--a brief period when President Woodrow Wilson led ...
MAR 25, 2019 • Podcast
Political Leadership: Beyond Gender
To celebrate the record number of women elected into Congress, the 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN, and ...
MAR 22, 2019 • Article
America in Decline?
A Pew Research report says that many Americans view the country as being in long-term decline. What implications does this have for U.S. foreign ...
MAR 20, 2019 • Podcast
Computational Propaganda, with Nick Monaco
In this in-depth conversation, Oxford Internet Institute researcher Nick Monaco reviews the history of computational propaganda (online disinformation), which goes back almost two decades and ...