The next 12 months will be an epic year for democracy. Half the world’s population will have the chance to vote. Lucy Fisher is joined by the FT’s editor Roula Khalaf and chief foreign affairs commentator Gideon Rachman to give a global perspective, while Political Fix regular Robert Shrimsley offers sharp analysis on how Britain’s political parties are shaping their offerings to the public at the start of an election year in the UK. Sign up here for 30 free days of Stephen Bush's Inside Politics newsletter, winner of the World Association of News Publishers 2023 Best Newsletter award.  Free links:  Can democracy survive 2024? Rishi Sunak seeks to harvest political advantage with autumn poll strategy UK economy will enter ‘grey gloom’ until polling day, economists say  The optimistic case for the British economy Narendra Modi responds to assassination claims Follow Lucy on X: @LOS_Fisher, Roula on @khalafroula, Gideon on @gideonrachman and Robert on @robertshrimsley. Presented by Lucy Fisher. Produced by Audrey Tinline. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Audio mix by Simon Panayi. Broadcast engineer: Andrew Georgiadis. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.  Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.