In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US government passed in March 2020 the world’s largest economic stimulus at 13% of US GDP. One-third of a year later, the funds had been mostly exhausted with the S&P500 hovering near an all-time high and economic recovery varying widely across industries. Yet unemployment continued to exceed that of the 2008 Great Recession, and US deaths approached 150,000.

In March 2020, the US government passed three bills providing financial support in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The $2.3 T stimulus package was the world’s largest at 13% of US GDP. However, this was not all; the Federal Reserve Bank (‘Fed’) loosened monetary policy and dramatically reversed interest rates, while the largest bill, the CARES Act, made funds available until the end of July. It was clear that panic over economic health overlapped with that over physical death.

Elections in the US are regular affairs. In democracies (‘the many’) like the UK, Israel, Germany, Japan, and India, elections can happen quite frequently, based on established rules. However, elections in oligarchies (‘the few’) and autocracies (‘the one’) occur based on rules that the governments themselves change.

Democratic elections like those in the US, UK, and Israel may be messy but proceed under transparent rules and timing. In the US, there is a definitive schedule; in the UK and Israel, there are well-understood triggers. As oligarchies (‘the few’) come to resemble autocracies (‘the one’), the rules become clouded and doubted, as in China and Russia. Participatory and responsible citizens require a clear understanding.

Citizens value elections, whether their government is a democracy (‘the many’), oligarchy (‘the few’), or autocracy (‘the one’). Already, upcoming US elections are referred to as pivotal or flawed, clear-cut or competitive. UK citizens are counting on their government to effectively interpret Brexit, the yes-no vote to leave the EU. Israel finally has a stable government after three back-to-back elections; Belarus contests their one; Russians wonder about their next.