What they say

Today it is not difficult to know what is happening but in order to know why it is happening you need openDemocracy.

Ivan Krastev

Let’s support openDemocracy to the hilt. Intelligent, unbought, unspun opinion, uncomfortable but necessary truths and a lot of good horsey argument: heaven knows they are in short enough supply!

John le Carré

openDemocracy's greatest strength is its intellectual courage, it is open to ideas, to debates, to the world. Back in 2003, I published a book with the new economics foundation. We predicted the bursting of the Anglo-American credit bubble. The rest of the world mocked us, but oD published us. The response was incredible, from readers worldwide. It is this combination of daring, intellectual integrity and global reach that makes writing for it so special.

Ann Pettifor

In the unending project of making a livable world, oD is one of the sites I most avidly look to for clues, undercurrents, and interconnected wisdom. 

Todd Gitlin

"Open Sesame." With these words the Persian artisan Ali Baba opened the cave of treasures stolen by 40 thieves. To expose the thieves of our time, pronounce:  “Open Democracy!"

John Berger

openDemocracy is an incredibly important and provocative source for intelligent, varied, debate and opinion on key issues, offering different points of view based on real knowledge. It’s created its own distinct identity and is a really important contributor to international discussion. 

Kirsty Hughes (Editor, Index on Censorship)

We need publications like openDemocracy. The way it extends serious, broad-based discussion and analysis of what is happening across the world, and makes this accessible, is simply vital.

Mary Robinson (global ‘Elder’)

openDemocracy is a tremendous publisher of material it's rare to find elsewhere; in that sense it corrects a market failure; its standard of writing is usually very high; it comes at things from different angles; it finds both established and new writers. Its material on Russia, is among the best - sharp, clear and probing. We're lucky to have it.

John Lloyd (FT & Reuters Institute, Oxford)

openDemocracy remains one of the few places where moral and political commitment combine with reasoned analysis to offer us new ways of understanding what is happening in turbulent times.

Mary Kaldor

openDemocracy is a crucial conduit for public discourse and for the promotion of radical ideas, when the political parties struggle to articulate policies and principles that seem relevant to the contemporary citizen.

Trevor Smith - Lord Smith of Clifton (working Lib Dem peer)

There is a fundamental hole in the heart of British political discourse. This is the virtual absence of any serious discussion about the nature of the British state, whether it can survive for long, and why that matters. Only OurKingdom, the British Section of openDemocracy, really tries to wrestle with the implications.

Peter Oborne (Chief Political Commentator, Daily Telegraph)

OurKingdom has established itself as an incredibly interesting voice in the debate over the future of British politics. OK has original ideas, and it airs them in original ways. It grabs people who have never before been interested in politics and makes them see the importance of getting involved.

David Lammy MP (Labour backbencher)

Anything our researchers post on openDemocracy is guaranteed an informed, expert and engaged audience. It is a very important platform for deliberative policy debate.

Nick Pearce (Director, Institute for Public Policy Research)

I found openDemocracy by chance, and corny as it sounds they’ve transformed my writing life. Their willingness to put in the extra work editing helps me shape my precious but convoluted articles into something readable.

Deborah Padfield (Citizens Advice Bureau Adviser, Cambridge)

openDemocracy has grown in a few years to stand as a key driver of an informed and empowered global public opinion. This resource must be preserved and expanded.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President of Brazil 1995-2003.

openDemocracy has become a massively useful resource. And a wonderful read.

Anthony Smith, former President of Magdalen College, Oxford

[My] column usually gets taken up by at least 40-50 websites world-wide each week, often including the influential International Security Network at ETH Zurich and IPRIS in Lisbon and occasionally Arts and Letters Daily and Huffington Post...I frequently get told at conferences that people follow the columns, not least journalists and civil servants.

Paul Rogers, long-time columnist

The effects [of publishing my article on openDemocracy] were quite significant: I was invited to meet government ministers, including a cabinet minister, as well as the Trades Union Congress.

Calota Perez, author

openDemocracy is a unique online resource, which allows people who know what they are talking about to examine in depth subjects about which it is worth talking. That is why it earns a privileged place on my bookmarks bar.

Timothy Garton Ash

Thank openDemocracy for teaching me more about the world than could have learned in any school. It's where I go to discover the answers to questions I have after reading the news, and where a global perspective is a given.

Solana Larsen, Managing Editor, Global Voices

openDemocracy changes my mind. I like that in a website!

Suzanne Moore

Every day, openDemocracy shows the importance of the new media for the thinking and engaged person. Updated, relevant and thoughtful, it makes crucial, and always readable, contributions to the global dialogue about the human condition in the 21st century.

Thomas Hylland Eriksen