Presentation drawing of “The Statue of Liberty Illuminating the World,” by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, 1875. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2014.

Democracy

Volume XIII, Number 4 | fall 2020

Miscellany

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has employed the consulta publica, or plebiscite, on several occasions since being elected to office in 2018. Mexican voters opposed the construction of a $13 billion air terminal in Texcoco de Mora.

All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it.

—Henry David Thoreau, 1849