The World Goes to the Polls: The Economist on Elections in 2024

More than 70 countries are holding elections this year, representing half the world’s population. What do the results reveal about the state of democracy in 2024? Can far-right parties be countered, as in France? And as America prepares to vote, what could the outcome mean for the world?

Zanny Minton Beddoes, The Economist’s editor-in-chief, will explore the consequences of the year’s major elections—from America to India, France, Venezuela and beyond—with senior correspondents from The Economist including Washington bureau chief Idrees Kahloon, Paris bureau chief Sophie Pedder, and geopolitics editor David Rennie, followed by audience Q&A.

with The Economist

Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist. Prior to this role, she was the economics editor, overseeing The Economist's global economics coverage. Ms Minton Beddoes has written extensively about international financial issues, including the enlargement of the European Union, the future of the International Monetary Fund and economic reform in emerging economies.

Idrees Kahloon, Washington bureau chief, leads The Economist’s coverage of the White House, Congress and national politics. Prior to that, he was the Washington correspondent and focused on policy matters. He began at The Economist as a data journalist in London. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in applied mathematics and economics.

Sophie Pedder, Paris bureau chief, covers French politics and economics. She joined The Economist in 1990 and has reported on Britain, European politics, the media industry, and the end of apartheid in South Africa as the Johannesburg correspondent in the 1990s. Earlier, she was a research assistant for William Julius Wilson at the University of Chicago’s Urban Poverty and Family Life project. She is the author of “Revolution Française: Emmanuel Macron and the Quest to Reinvent a Nation” (Bloomsbury, 2018), and “Le déni français” (JC Lattès, 2012). A graduate of Oxford University and the University of Chicago, she won the David Watt journalism prize in 2006.

David Rennie, Geopolitics editor, writes about geopolitics and co-hosts the Drum Tower podcast on China. Since he joined The Economist in 2007, he has worked as a columnist in Brussels, London, Washington and Beijing, where he was bureau chief from 2018 to 2024. Previously, he was a foreign correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, a contributing editor of the Spectator magazine and a reporter for the Evening Standard. He has won several awards, most recently the 2023 Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia, shared with his Drum Tower co-host, Sue-Lin Wong.

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