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The impact of socio-economic inequality on democracy has long been debated, with most agreed that the democratic notion of equal representation is undermined by large gaps between the wealthiest and poorest citizens. Looking at examples from the United States, Alistair M. Macleod argues that the corporate lobbying is but one manifestation of the malign influence that this imbalance can have on democratic processes.

For most British citizens, the government web domain is their first point of contact with the state – and it can be confusing. The Labour government tried to update it by developing government ‘supersites’. Yet Jane Tinkler finds that recent statistics show that the central government is spending around £130m per year to generate somewhat less than 550 million visits to its sites. And the quality of information facing citizens and business still varies a great deal.

Academics around the world are facing stagnating or reduced funding for research and increased demands for research to have impact. Jo VanEvery provides an overview of the impact debate in Canada and demonstrates how research funding councils can ‘nudge’ researchers into developing knowledge mobilisation plans based on solid academic work.