Stories by Steven Hill

During the “lost decade," Japan had universal healthcare, less inequality, the highest life expectancy, and low rates of infant mortality, crime, and incarceration.

How is a country with a lower per capita income than Mexico hailed by so many as the next global superpower?

Sweden, Germany and other European countries are proof that you can have it all -- but only if you have the right institutions.

Vicious battles over Supreme Court nominees could be avoided with term limits and mandatory retirement ages. Why should senators representing a minority of U.S. voters confirm a justice for life?

Forget about "money buying elections." Congressional redistricting in California allowed the politicians to handpick their voters before voters picked them.

The Electoral College system isn't only cumbersome and outdated – it's anti-democratic.

The rosy view that there is an 'emerging Democratic majority' in the US, must factor in how our 18th century winner-take-all electoral system often maintains minority control despite fewer votes.

American media routinely fails to distinguish the unique political characteristics of the European landscape.

On March 5, cities in California and Vermont adopted "instant runoff voting" systems that could crack open American politics to new voices and better choices.

Once the census data is provided to states this month, states will begin to redraw legislative districts to ensure they are equal in population. Lawyers love redistricting -- unscrupulous legislators generate tons of litigation -- but the practice rips voters off.

The historical moment has come to scrap the Electoral College and institute a national direct election.

November promises to be a potentially historic shootout for both supporters and opponents of gun control.

Now that a federal appeals court has blocked the part of the Telecommunications Act concerned with indecent material on the Internet, First Amendment advocates can all breathe a sigh of relief. Or can we? The parts of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that remain are far more damaging to the First Amendment than the sub-section known as the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Taken as a whole, the Telecommunications Act is a kind of "free trade" agreement for the corporate media. So, before we celebrate too wildly the federal appeals court's acceptance of an anti-censorship argument to strike down the CDA, we better ask ourselves: have we won the battle only to inadvertently contribute to losing the war?

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) recently announced her introduction of House Bill 2545 which would lift the 1967 federal law that mandates one seat per Congressional district, allowing states the option of electing their Congressional delegations by multi-seat proportional representation. Most third party efforts in the U.S. have already endorsed the idea. So has progressives Jesse Jackson and Lani Guinier, conservatives Kevin Phillips and Michael Lind, and the editors of USA Today. Justice Clarence Thomas has written favorably in his legal opinions of proportional systems as a race-neutral method of giving representation to racial minorities. Indeed, there is a startling convergence of thought on the subject taking place from both the left and the right, slowly gathering momentum since race conscious districts first came under attack in 1993.