“We can become co-creators of our democratic system, reconfiguring society in a way that is more transparent, more inclusive, more fair.”

“I think it’s a very grave moment. China really wants to invade Taiwan. You’re sitting in a place that is the flashpoint if there’s going to be World War III. And yet, there’s calm in the eye of the hurricane. That calm, I think, emanates from all that Audrey’s done.”

“Audrey has created the opportunity to make Taiwan the most exciting constitutional democracy in the world.”

“We can make the government more open to the public. It’ll be easier for people to access the data, to analyze it. Transparency.”

“I think there is a lot that the world can learn from Taiwan. The U.S. is running on a 250-year-old operating system. There is a strong desire to move beyond this and re-form from first principles what democracy in the 21st century would actually look like.”

“I was born with a heart defect, and one day I just fainted. I woke up in a hospital, and they told me the hole in my heart had grown. I could die. This awareness that everything can be reset tomorrow reminds me of Taiwanese democracy. We can lose our ...

“I brought a very long cable for internet connection. I livestreamed through Twitter. Everybody saw it is possible for democracy to evolve, to come up with novel policies simply by asking the people, ‘What should we do together?’”

“The Sunflower Movement was a real turning point for Taiwan’s democracy. When the Sunflower Movement happened, I said to my colleague, ‘I have to leave now. Democracy needs me.’”

“That people see democracy as a social technology—something that people can construct together, that they can improve in the here and now. We can code up political systems.”

Audrey Tang, what is your greatest hope for democracy across the globe?

Across the world, democracy is on a decline. Authoritarianism is on the rise. Global freedom has eroded for the 18th consecutive year.