What Does Democracy Mean in the 21st Century?

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? Is it possible to identify essential elements of democracy that are common to the different polities of our diverse world? Is democracy really on the decline today, and what sort of civic culture, institutional norms, and public participation do societies need to be truly democratic? Former Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany Joschka Fischer, Oxford political scientist Stein Ringen, Brookings Institution/Robert Bosch Foundation fellow and former Clinton Administration foreign policy advisor Ted Piccone, and Mélida Jiménez, program officer at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, visit Zócalo to consider how we can define and defend our democracies.