Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs is pleased to announce the winners of its 2018 International Student Essay Contest.
ESSAY TOPIC: Is it important to live in a democracy?
Students approached this topic in different ways. They weighed current and historical cases. They applied and critiqued political, moral, and economic theories. They considered the protections, inefficiencies, opportunities, and inequities associated with democracy in practice. And they related their lived experiences to fundamental questions about the way societies ought to be governed.
Thank you to all who submitted essays. We received more entries this year than ever before, with representation from schools in 65 countries: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China (including Hong Kong), Colombia, Comoros, Croatia, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Macedonia, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Montenegro, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Singapore, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Sweden, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.
And the winners are:
High School Category
First PrizeDemocracy: The Keystone of our SocietyYou Young Kim, Seoul International School, South Korea
Joint Second PrizeLiving in an "Illiberal Democracy" Gergely Bérces, Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Kéttannyelvű Baptista Gimnázium, Hungary
Joint Second PrizeDemocracy: Freedom with a CaveatGage Garcia, Los Altos High School, USA
Third PrizeWhy Democracy is the Best We've GotAlexandra Mork, Harvard-Westlake School, USA
Undergraduate Category
First PrizeVote Democracy! Claudia Meng, Yale University, USA
Second PrizeWhat the Tunisian Revolution Taught Me about DemocracyAziz Ben Hadj Yahia, Tunis Business School, Tunisia
Third PrizeDemocracy is What We Choose and Uphold Mariana Isabel Sierra Estrada, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Colombia
Graduate Category
Joint First PrizeDemocracy in GhanaWutor Mahama Baleng, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
Joint First PrizeThe "Dirty War" and the History of Democracy in ArgentinaLena Muldoon, Universidad de Belgrano, Argentina
Honorable Mentions
Merry Christmas, Democracy!Jinyoung Kim, The King's School, Australia
Is it Important to Live in a Democracy?Murat Bakeev, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia