What Is Democracy? (trailer)

Coming at a moment of profound political and social crisis, What Is Democracy? reflects on a word we too often take for granted.

Director Astra Taylor (Zizek!, Examined Life)’s idiosyncratic, philosophical journey spans millennia and continents: from ancient Athens’ groundbreaking experiment in self-government to capitalism’s roots in medieval Italy; from modern-day Greece grappling with financial collapse and a mounting refugee crisis to the United States reckoning with its racist past and the growing gap between rich and poor.

Featuring a diverse cast—including celebrated theorists, trauma surgeons, activists, factory workers, asylum seekers, and former prime ministers—this urgent film connects the past and the present, the emotional and the intellectual, the personal and the political, in order to provoke and inspire.

If we want to live in democracy, we must first ask what the word even means.

zeitgeistfilms.com
Philosophy   Politics
Rate this video 
Philosophy
Humanity is Not the Problem. The Problem is a Single Culture.
Guides
Trending Videos
Louis Theroux: The Settlers (2025)
62 min - Fourteen years after his first visit and 2011 film The Ultra Zionists, Louis Theroux meets some of the growing community of religious-nationalist Israelis who have settled in the West Bank.Louis...
Louis Theroux: The Ultra Zionists (2011)
59 min - Louis Theroux spends time with a small and very committed subculture of ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers. He discovers a group of people who consider it their religious and political obligation...
Israel Is Being ABANDONED - The Dam Is Finally Breaking
23 min - Support us as we expand our challenge to our broken media here: https://www.patreon.com/owenjones84
Planet Local Voices Series: 33 Voices United by a Vision of Ecological Economies, Healthy Communities and Local Food Systems
445 min - Planet Local Voices is video and podcast series featuring cutting-edge thinkers, writers, movement-builders and activists from across the world, united by a planet local vision of ecological...
SlopTube & Weaponized Ignorance (How Careless Coverage Hurts)
63 min - When massive content creators tackle contentious issues irresponsibly, it's up to us to hold them to account. Ethan Klein (H3), Mutahar (SomeOrdinaryGamers) and Asmongold are just 3 of the many...
How To Erase a People
22 min - They did it to Native Americans, to Palestinians like my family in 1948, and now Trump wants to do it again in Gaza. It's called 'forcible transfer,' and it kills something much greater than any...
Water is Love (2024)
61 min - Water is Love reveals the power of regenerative ecosystem design to create water retention in communities, villages, and regions. We touch upon traditional ecological knowledge, how water makes...
Trending Articles
Double Down News
Guides for Responding to the Next Four Years
Subscribe for $5/mo to Watch over 50 Patron-Exclusive Films
Subscribe $5/mo View All Patron Films

 

Your support keeps us ad-free and financially independent

Our 10,000+ video & article library is 99% free, ad-free, and entirely community-funded thanks to our patron subscribers!


Want to double your impact? You can subscribe for $10/mo or more as an extra show of support.