Zócalo Public Square

Democracy can mean very different things—majority rule, self-governance, the way we vote for our favorite contestants on TV dance competitions—to different people and in different places. Our lack of a shared definition of democracy adds to the confusion in times like our own, when we hear warnings of grave and growing threats to democracy. What does “democracy” really mean now in a world where almost every country purports to be democratic? Oxford political scientist Stein Ringen, Brookings Institution/Robert Bosch Foundation fellow and former Clinton Administration foreign policy advisor Ted Piccone, Mélida Jiménez, program officer at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, and moderator Warren Olney, host of KCRW’s “To the Point,” took up that question in a panel discussion titled “What Does Democracy Mean in the 21st Century?” a Zócalo/KCRW Berlin Event in partnership with the Daniel K. Inouye Institute and Villa Aurora/Thomas Mann House, held at the CIEE Global Institute in Be