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Franchise

✶ Franchise · An atlas of who governs

How the world
chooses who governs.

Every country answers the same questions differently: who holds power, how they get it, and who gets a say. Turn the globe and pick a country, or start with how the systems work.

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Elections

  1. LiveUnited States2026 Midterm ElectionsNow
  2. ResultsIsrael26th Knesset election28 Oct
  3. NextNew ZealandGeneral electionin 3 days
  4. NextJapanEhime governorin 11 days
  5. NextItalyChamber by-electionsin 11 days
  6. NextHong KongElection Committee subsector electionsin 18 days
  7. NextSpainGeneral electionin 25 days
  8. NextGermanyFederal Convention elects the Presidentin 87 days
  9. NextIndiaFive state assembly electionsexpected Feb 2027
  10. NextFrancePresidential electionin 165 days
  11. NextUnited KingdomEnglish local elections and Northern Ireland Assemblyexpected May 2027
  12. NextRussiaSingle voting dayin 312 days

What this is

One question,
many answers.

Franchise — the right to choose who governs — is an atlas of how that choice is made. For each country: the offices, how they are filled, the rules that turn votes into seats, and the results.

  1. 01 Who holds power: heads of state and government, legislatures, courts.
  2. 02 How they get it: elections, appointments, inheritance — and the rules behind each.
  3. 03 What happened: calendars, live counts and history, from official sources.

Learn

How the
systems work.

  1. I

    Forms of government

    Democracies, monarchies, one-party states and everything between — and whether power sits in one capital or is shared with states.

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  2. II

    Executives

    Presidential, parliamentary, semi-presidential: who leads, how they are chosen, and how they can be removed.

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  3. III

    Electoral systems

    First past the post, runoffs, ranked ballots, proportional lists, mixed systems. The same votes can elect different winners.

    Read →
  4. IV

    The political spectrum

    Left and right, the two-axis model, ideologies and party families, and why some countries have two parties and others twenty.

    Read →
  5. V

    Civics

    Constitutions, rights, the separation of powers, judicial review, citizenship and who gets the vote.

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Countries

Pick a
country.

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