Democracy
Interesting things to track:
- Sales of self-help books
Our Democracy — showing what democracy looks like through photography and stories. Joint project of CatchLight Foundation and National Geographic Society.
History and Philosophy
The Wikipedia article on liberal democracy gives a good overview of how modern democracies evolved.
Daniel Ziblatt posits that the factional strength of a country's elites determines the survival of democracy, not a rise in living standards or an uprising of the working or middle class.
Voting
Who shows up to vote?
- "Black Turnout in 1964, and Beyond." New York Times. October 16, 2014.
- "Black voter turnout fell in 2016, even as a record number of Americans cast ballots." Pew Research. May 12, 2017.
- Voter Turnout Demographics
How do votes translate to decisions?
Requires diversity and education.
Ka-Ping Yee's voting simulation visualizations.
Voting methodologies:
See also:
- Arrow's impossiblity theorem
- Adam Rogers. "Colorado tried a new way to vote: Make people pay — quadratically." WIRED, April 16, 2019.
U.S. Population / Demographic Shifts
Religion
According to Pew Research[1]:
- Evangelical Protestant — 25.4%
- Mainline Protestant — 14.7%
- Black church — 6.5%
- Catholic — 20.8%
According to Gallup, 2014 "Beliefs and Values" survey suggested that 42 percent of Americans are creationists, 31 percent are theistic evolutionists, and 19 percent are atheistic evolutionists.[2]
Age
Regional Inequality
Gerrymandering
Foreign Policy
Transformational versus transactional diplomacy
Activism
- Equal Citizens. Founded by Lawrence Lessig.
