GCRD Insights

Traditional indices focus on elections and governance. Our working paper introduces a paradigm shift in how we assess democratic health, focusing on civic dialogue as the earliest signal of resilience or decay.

#DDI

The European Democracy Hub recently asked an important question:
Are our democracy assessment tools still fit for purpose in a time of rising repression?
Their analysis highlights a major gap: existing indices track institutions, but not the quality of public discourse, where democratic erosion often begins.

This is exactly why we are building the Democracy Discourse Index (DDI) with Sensika Technologies and a global consortium of universities.

On this International Day of Tolerance, GCRD Director of Strategic Projects & Partnerships, Croshelle Harris, offers a deeply personal reflection on how information manipulation shapes our capacity for human encounter.

Drawing on her experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer in post-Soviet Moldova—where Cold War propaganda had pre-scripted perceptions of who could be a "real" American—Croshelle traces a through-line from Soviet-era information control to today's weaponized narratives. She reminds us that tolerance isn't simply about accepting difference: it requires the ability to see each other clearly, unmediated by manufactured realities.

Can democracy survive without faith? GCRD Trustee and Board Member Dr. Douglas Barry tackles one of the most enduring questions in political philosophy—the relationship between divine authority and democratic legitimacy.

Tracing a remarkable arc from ancient Athens to the present day, Doug examines how democracy's moral foundations have been shaped by spiritual traditions across millennia.

Yet today, as social bonds weaken and faith in institutions fractures, the question becomes urgent: What sustains democracy when traditional sources of meaning erode?

We invite you to read his reflection below—a meditation on how private expressions of faith contribute to the greater public good, and why democratic renewal may require rediscovering the transcendent.

Everyone is talking about OpenAI and other tech giants becoming too big to fail. However, Dr. Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob argues that we should be more worried about their becoming too politically useful to restrain.

For nearly four centuries, the modern state has been the principal actor in global affairs. Its legitimacy rested on a moral covenant — a social contract in which power was meant to serve people, not consume them. That covenant is now under a new kind of strain. A handful of technology companies — OpenAI, Nvidia, Amazon, Google, Meta, and others — have amassed not just economic might but geopolitical influence once reserved for nation-states. They are shaping the world’s moral architecture as profoundly as any government ever has.

When such entities become too politically useful to restrain, who holds them accountable?

This is not just a political, economic, or legal question. It is a spiritual one

This is the first in a series of framework papers that establish the conceptual foundations for the Global Centre for Rehumanising Democracy's work. Each paper builds understanding of how authentic leadership and trust restoration can renew democratic systems.

This foundational paper introduces the Five-Tier Trust Architecture—a comprehensive model for understanding how trust operates in democratic systems and why it is fracturing under the pressures of artificial intelligence and digital transformation. Moving beyond traditional institutional trust theory, this framework reveals trust as a complex, interdependent system spanning five layers: from the deepest meta-cognitive capacity for trust itself (Trust in Trust), through epistemic and social foundations, to the critical mediating role of authentic democratic leadership, and ultimately to institutional legitimacy.

The framework's central insight: democratic renewal cannot come through institutional reform alone—it requires authentic leaders willing to do the inner work necessary for genuine human connection.