Observations

Morocco's recent election felt important, yet turnout was strikingly low. In this episode of Elections across the world, we look at why so many young Moroccans are walking away from the ballot box, and at the gap between the country's prestige projects and economic growth and the reality of youth unemployment and poor public services. We ask where real power in Morocco sits, with parliament or the...

16 and 17 years olds are about to get the vote but only around 30% of under 18’s say they’ve learned about politics in school or college. Is lowering the voting age enough to get young people engaged?    In this episode of How to Increase Turnout?, host Joshua Paisley is joined by James Sloam, Professor of Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London, to e...

Kazakhstan went to the polls on 23rd August for their first parliamentary election since the constitutional change. The result was a landslide, new party Adilet won more than 71% of the vote on a reported turnout of 74%.   On the surface, it looks like the Kazakhstan government enjoys strong voter engagement and a healthy endorsement of the status quo; however, it's more complicated than...

Why does the US still choose its president through the Electoral College, a system designed for an 18th-century country of 13 states?   To answer this question, Joshua Paisley is joined by Alexander Keyssar, the Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor at Harvard Kennedy School, and author of Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?   Together they trace the electoral college from its o...

Zambia's August election was billed as a test of one of Africa's most stable democracies. It ended with the arrest of the main opposition candidate, accusations of a staged assassination attempt, a vote count suspended over unverified reports of violence, and questions raised over discrepancies between the presidential and parliamentary vote counts.   In this episode of  Elections A...

Should voting be compulsory? In this podcast, Joshua Paisley is joined by Shane Singh, Professor of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia, to ask whether compulsory voting could be the answer to declining democratic participation.    Compulsory voting is not a new idea, with its roots in antiquity. The policy was introduced in Belgium in 1893 and in Australia in 1...

In this episode, Joshua Paisley is joined by Professor of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations at the University of Sheffield, Kate Dommett, to explain how social media has affected UK Elections.    To find out how to get involved as an observer: https://democracyvolunteers.org/

This episode marks the start of a Democracy Volunteers Series where we discuss the radical ideas that countries across the world have implemented to increase turnout and voter participation in elections.    In this episode, with the help of Deputy Head for Development and Associate Professor of Technology Research at the University of Tartu Professor Mihkel Solvak, Joshua Paisley breaks...

In this episode, Joshua Paisley breaks down the elections that shaped our world in July 2026.    With the help of Professor Martin Evans and Dr Dalia Ghanem, Joshua discusses the recent Algerian Election and its turnout crisis.    To find out how to get involved as an observer: https://democracyvolunteers.org/

In this episode, Democracy Volunteers goes back further than any election we've ever observed - 2,500 years, to 5th-century BC Athens, credited as the birthplace of democracy.    Today, Joshua Paisley is joined by Josiah Ober, Professor of Political Science and Classics at Stanford University, to answer how true that claim really is and whether anything of Athenian democracy survives in...

What does Democracy Volunteers actually do, and why does it matter? In this episode, host Joshua Paisley sits down with Director John Ault and Deputy Director Harry Busz to uncover the who, what and why of the UK's leading election observation organisations.   Our discussion ranges from why independent observers are still needed in regulated democracies to the countries that won't let observe...

In this episode, Joshua Paisley breaks down the elections that shaped our world in June 2026. From chaos at the ballot box in South Korea, to the arrival of a new Colombian President. Plus, Joshua is joined by Meri Minasyan, the Monitoring and Elections Projects Coordinator at Transparency International, for a deep dive into Nikol Pashinyan's victory in the Armenian Election.

Joshua Paisley is joined by Simon Osborne, the actor who played William Pitt the Younger in Blackadder III's opening episode Dish and Dishonesty, for a behind-the-scenes look at one of British sitcom's most beloved political satires. The conversation traces Simon's path from a Cornish village watching Poldark being filmed to landing a Blackadder audition at sixteen - having specifically asked his...

Joshua Paisley speaks with Jem Roberts, author of The True History of Blackadder, about Dish and Dishonesty — the opening episode of Blackadder III and the most political half-hour the show ever produced. The conversation traces how a Robbie Coltrane one-man show about Samuel Johnson accidentally set the whole Georgian series in motion, why an episode recorded one week after Thatcher's 1987 landsl...

Ethan Reuter speaks with Sir John Curtice, Professor of Politics at the University of Strathclyde, senior research fellow at the National Centre for Social Research, and one of Britain's foremost election analysts, about the 1997 general election that ended eighteen years of Conservative rule and delivered Tony Blair's Labour Party a majority of 179 seats. The conversation ranges across the sweepi...

Joshua Paisley is joined by Simpsons enthusiast Damon Balgen to examine two of the show's most politically charged episodes - Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish and Sideshow Bob Roberts - and ask how much has really changed since they first aired in the 1990s. The conversation unpacks Mr Burns' cynically managed gubernatorial campaign, complete with mudslinger, garbologist and a...

John Ault speaks with Neil Forsyth, the writer behind the critically acclaimed BBC Scotland series Bob Servant Independent, about the creation of one of television's most memorable fictional candidates. The conversation traces Bob Servant's origins — from a Dundee cheeseburger van owner replying to spam emails to the self-appointed saviour of Broughty Ferry's local by-election — and explores what...

Ethan Reuter speaks with Iain Dale, award-winning broadcaster, author, and political commentator, about the 1979 general election that ended five years of Labour government and brought Margaret Thatcher to power as Britain's first female Prime Minister. The conversation traces the decade of industrial strife and economic malaise that set the stage for Thatcher's victory, from the collapse of post-...

Ethan Reuter speaks with Professor Stephen Fielding, Emeritus Professor of Political History at the University of Nottingham, about the 1964 general election that brought Harold Wilson's Labour Party to power after thirteen years of Conservative rule. The conversation explores the context of Britain's economic decline, the Profumo affair, and the modernising rhetoric of Wilson's "white heat of tec...

Ethan Reuter speaks with Professor Stephen Fielding, Emeritus Professor of Political History at the University of Nottingham, about the 1964 general election that brought Harold Wilson's Labour Party to power after thirteen years of Conservative rule. The conversation explores the context of Britain's economic decline, the Profumo affair, and the modernising rhetoric of Wilson's "white heat of tec...

Democracy Volunteers deployed observers across the Netherlands for the parliamentary elections in October. Deploying 32 observers and experts, 25 of whom were based in the European Netherlands and the other 7 on the BES islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. Democracy Volunteers has now observed in The Netherlands on 8 separate occasions, deploying 99 observers, across 63 of the 345 municipa...

One of the world's largest technology companies has made protecting elections a core part of its mission — but why does a tech giant care about democracy, and what exactly is it doing? In this episode, Lily Russell-Jones speaks with Dave Leichtman, Microsoft's Senior Director of Global Elections, about the company's work safeguarding democratic processes around the world. The conversation explores...

Lily Russell-Jones explores the government's plans to expand acceptable voter ID to include bank cards, a key part of wider electoral reforms announced in July. The episode features Professor Ed Fieldhouse from Manchester University, who discusses research from the British Election Study showing that around 5% of voters lack valid photo ID, and how this disproportionately affects younger, less aff...

Harassment and abuse directed at political candidates and elected representatives is on the rise — the Electoral Commission found that 70% of candidates experienced abuse or harassment at the 2024 general election. In this episode, Lily Russell-Jones explores the growing crisis and what's being done about it. She speaks first with Hannah Phillips of the Joe Cox Foundation, which campaigns for safe...

Twenty percent of voters cast their ballot by post at the 2024 general election, but is postal voting working as it should? In this episode, Lily Russell-Jones speaks with John Ault, Director of Democracy Volunteers, about the rising challenges facing postal voting in the UK—from missed deadlines and delayed deliveries to the particular struggles of overseas voters. Through Stephanie Carlton's sto...