Society, Democracy & Culture

The Global Political Divide: How to Escape the Era of Polarization?

Liberal democracy is undergoing a profound crisis. According to the 2025 report from the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute at the University of Gothenburg, the level of democracy in the world has been declining for the seventh consecutive...

Europe’s Digital Shield Rises: How the DSA Is Moving from Words to Action Against TikTok and Shein

In February 2026, the European Commission launched two formal proceedings that mark a turning point in the application of the Digital Services Act (DSA), the regulation aimed at making digital platforms more accountable. By targeting the e-commerce...

269 Million Students: Global Higher Education Faces the Equity Challenge

Le nombre d'étudiants dans l'enseignement supérieur a plus que doublé en deux décennies. Il est passé de 135 millions en 2004 à 269 millions en 2024 [1]. Cette expansion massive a ouvert des opportuni

149 Million Women Migrants: Systemic Exclusion Versus Protective Policies

En 2026, près de 149 millions de femmes et de filles vivent en dehors de leur pays de naissance. Elles constituent 48 % de la population migrante mondiale et représentent 38,7 % de la main-d'œuvre iss

In Bluebeard's Castle by George Steiner: When Culture Did Not Prevent Barbarism

40% of the World's 7,000 Languages Are Threatened: Oceania and Central America on the Front Line

Freedom House 2026: 20 Years of Declining Freedoms — and the Counter-Trends That Resist

The Accumulation of Public Policies Threatens Democratic Effectiveness in Europe

The effectiveness of modern democracies hinges on their capacity to meet citizens' expectations. Yet, a fundamental trend in Europe, the accumulation of public policies, appears to undermine this promise. Rather than consolidating or pruning, governments continually add new laws and programs, creati

Global Democratic Decline Erases 47 Years of Progress

For the average global citizen, the level of democracy has reverted to that of 1978. This is the central finding of the [V-Dem 2026 Report](https://www.v-dem.net/documents/75/V-Dem_Institute_Democracy_Report_2026_lowres.pdf), published by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg, covering

American Democracy Reaches 50-Year Low

The 2026 V-Dem report ranks the United States 51st globally out of 179 nations for democratic quality — down from 20th place a few years ago. The country's Liberal Democracy Index (LDI) score decreased from 0.79 in 2023 to 0.57 in 2025, a 24% drop in one year. This level brings American democracy ba

Jürgen Habermas is Dead: Are His Ideas Still Audible in the Din of the Digital Age?

1 # Jürgen Habermas is Dead: Can Democracy Survive His Funeral? 2 3 The German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, theoretician of the public sphere and deliberative democracy, passed away on March 14, 2026.

The Dark Enlightenment: Neoreactionary Thought at the Heart of American Power

Arnaud Miranda, a researcher specializing in radical ideologies, publishes with "The Dark Enlightenment" a detailed mapping of neoreactionary thought.

Democracy Put to the Test by Deepfakes: Indian Elections Face Hypertrucage

The 2024 Indian legislative elections, the largest democratic exercise in history, took place under the shadow of deepfakes. These audiovisual manipulations question the resilience of electoral processes.

Progress by the Numbers: Anatomy of Steven Pinker's *Enlightenment Now*

In a media landscape dominated by decline narratives, Steven Pinker's *Enlightenment Now* presents a provocative defense of modernity's founding ideals through 75 charts and massive statistical documentation. The cognitive psychologist argues that reason, science, and humanism have driven measurable improvements in human welfare worldwide, though critics challenge his selective optimism and interpretation of data.

The Bias Stronger Than the Will. X's Conservative Algorithm Bias Predated Elon Musk's Takeover

A study published in Nature shows that X's algorithmic feed shifts users toward more conservative positions. This bias was documented by Twitter itself in 2021, before Musk's takeover.

Artificial Intelligence in French Education: A Deployment Between Lag and Acceleration

Only 14% of French lower secondary teachers report using AI in their work, compared to 36% in OECD countries. This lag reveals a lack of preparation and resources.

Erasmus+ surpasses 2 million participants in 2025 and opens up to 45 non-EU countries

In 2025, Erasmus+ crossed the threshold of 2 million annual participants. This is double the figure from 2014, the year the program was reformed and endowed with a budget of 26.2 billion euros for the 2021-2027 period. Since its creation in 1987, Erasmus+ has trained 14 million people in 45 countries.

9% of Young French People Believe Their Generation Will Live Better Than Their Parents

In January 2026, the McKinsey Global Institute published a study on the attitudes of young Europeans towards the future. The striking figure: only 9% of young French people believe their generation will live better than that of their parents. In Germany, the rate is less than 10%.

Johan Norberg's *Peak Human*: Seven Golden Ages to Understand Our Own

Johan Norberg is a Swedish liberal and a researcher at the Cato Institute in Washington. He published *Progress* in 2016, *Open* in 2020, and *The Capitalist Manifesto* in 2023. Each book defends the same central thesis: open societies that welcome foreign ideas, trade, and intellectual freedom prosper.

In Chile, a Social Impact Bond Reduced Illiteracy from 90% to 40% in One Year

In 2023, in the municipality of Puente Alto, a suburb of Santiago, Chile, 2,700 first-graders from vulnerable communities could not read. Over 90% of them were classified as "non-readers" by the standardized DIALECT test. One year later, this proportion had dropped to 40%. The mechanism that made this result possible...

No Country in the World Has Achieved Legal Equality Between Men and Women

The 2026 UN Women report, released on the occasion of International Women's Day on March 8, establishes an unambiguous finding: none of the 193 United Nations member states have achieved complete legal equality between men and women. On average globally, women possess only 64% of men's legal rights. The...

In Paris, one in two 6th graders could be in private school by 2035

Paris is losing children. Between 2010 and 2024, the number of annual births in the capital fell from 31,440 to 21,484, a decrease of 32%. This demographic drop, more pronounced than at the national level, has direct consequences for schools. But it does not affect public and private schools in the same way. A note from the Institute for...

Race Relations in the United States: A Growing Divergence Between Lived Experience and Public Perception

In 1958, only 4% of Americans approved of interracial marriage. By 2021, this figure reached 94%. Yet, 58% of Americans judge the state of race relations in their country as 'bad.' A 2026 Brookings-Gallup study explores this paradox: the widening gap between ongoing interpersonal integration and public perception shaped by media polarization.

Harvard's AI Education Study: An Intelligent Tutor Outperforms the Classroom in a Randomized Controlled Trial

A randomized controlled trial conducted at Harvard shows that an AI tutor produces learning gains twice as high as an active classroom course — in 49 minutes instead of 60. The implications are significant.

The V-Dem 2025 report reveals a world with 91 autocracies versus 89 democracies

The annual report from the V-Dem Institute, published on March 4, 2026, documents a shift that political scientists feared: for the first time since the end of the Cold War, the world has more autocracies (91) than democracies (89).