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Truth and Democracy

Open societies thrive on press freedom, vigorous debate, and evidence-based policymaking. While liberal democracies do not always live up to this ideal, the understanding that this is how things should work, and that voters can remove leaders who transgress this expectation, is the source of their strength.

LONDON – It has become something of a cliché in recent years to say that we live in a post-truth, post-fact age. In the United Kingdom, the Brexit referendum and the spectacular rise and fall of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson catapulted the crisis of truth to the forefront of political debate. In the United States, former President Donald Trump’s incessant falsehoods during his tumultuous term in office and his equally turbulent post-presidency continue to pose an unprecedented threat to the fabric of American democracy.

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