CDDRL Mosbacher director Francis Fukuyama writes for San Francisco Chronicle's Opinion section about the phenomena of "vetocracy" in U.S. politics: "There is in fact something to this point of view: America has become what I label a 'vetocracy,' in which the government has become paralyzed as a result of the ability of well-organized groups to veto initiatives they don’t like." Read the full article here.

As part of Stanford Worldview's Wide Angle: Election 2016 Project, Nate Persily of Stanford Law School recently described how the 2016 election highlights changing trends in polarization and gridlock in the United States, particularly the role of campaign finance and digital technology. 

Watch the interview with Nate Persily

Read the Interview with Nate Persily

In a recent op-ed piece in The Washington Post, FSI Senior Fellow Larry Diamond and Peter Ackerman, chairman of Level the Playing Field, highlight  the need to ease restrictions that disincentivize third party candidates from running in US presidential elections: "It would be great if Bloomberg decided to run and give the American voter a nonpartisan choice for president in 2016. But what about 2020 and beyond? We think serious and compelling independent candidates would be willing to run for president if they could count on a fair fight between them and the major party nominees."

In a piece in The Atlantic, FSI Senior Fellow Larry Diamond argues that to defeat ISIS, America must unite and revisit the core principles of freedom from which it was created. With a surge of illiberal populism spreading throughout the US and Europe, Diamond urges American leaders to reexamine the country's sense of purpose and not degrade freedom in the pursuit for security. 

A day after President Obama's address on the San Bernardino shootings, FSI Senior Fellow Larry Diamond speaks with Michael Krasny of NPR News on the U.S. response to global terrorist threats. In addition to a unified, international coalition, Diamond believes one of the keys to defeating ISIS lies with empowerment of the people of Iraq and Syria, addressing the need for political change in the region. Diamond was accompanied by Jessica Stern, research professor at Boston University and Shibley Telhami, senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.