Debates Around the World

Debates play an essential role in democracies, representing a unique opportunity to hear directly from political party leaders in a live, unedited, and unfiltered environment. These uniquely pressurized moments within election campaigns are important in serving the voting public, informing them on policy positions and revealing character.

While televised debates in democracies around the world share the common attribute of being broadcast with the goal of getting to know the candidates better and enabling decisions on Election Day, they differ in their structure and organization. Political cultures, debate sponsors and institutional models for the organization of the debates vary from one country to another.

Australia

Individual media outlets are responsible for organizing debates in Australia, with the leaders of the two major political (Labor and Liberal) parties taking part. The number of debates with the two frontrunners in the election campaign has fluctuated, with three debates held in the 1993, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2022 elections and only one debate in the 1990, 1998, 2001, 2007, and 2010 federal elections.

In 2010, Prime Minister Julia Gillard vowed to create a leaders' debates commission, repeating her commitment in 2013, but no agreement was reached. In 2019, both the Liberal and Labor leaders revived the pledge of establishing "an independent debates commission" with the goal of ending the "debates about the debates." However, the proposal was abandoned before the May 2022 federal election.

The proposed framework of the commission would have consisted of 10 members, including representatives from each of the Liberal and Labor parties, an independent commissioner appointed by each of the government and the opposition, media organizations, National Press Club, and federal parliamentary press gallery. Three debates would have been organized in every election campaign, with the commission determining the formats and selecting the moderators. Despite the lack of consensus over the proposal, Australia appears to signal a continued desire for a commission. In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the conduct of the 2022 election, the ABC, Australia's national public broadcaster, requested that a commission be established no later than 12 months before the next election by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

France

France has held presidential debate since 1974. There is no legal obligation to participate. The televised second-round debate between the two frontrunners has now become a tradition. There has been one taking place at every presidential election except in 2002, when incumbent president Jacques Chirac refused to debate Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the Front National (FN) party.

The country's audiovisual and digital regulatory authority (l'Arcom) has a mandate to ensure that election debates allocate time to candidates equally during the election campaign, in accordance with laws governing French election coverage. Because France uses a two-round system for electing a president, in which a wider field of candidates is reduced to a final vote between two candidates, debates have traditionally only been held in the first and second rounds. This makes it clear who is eligible to participate and makes it easy to divide speaking time equally. However, in 2017, for the first time in its history, France held two debates prior to the first round and before the official list of candidates was published by l'Arcom. One featured the five candidates who ranked highest in the polls at the time, while the other consisted of all 11 candidates running for the presidency that year.

In 2022, there was only one debate, the second-round debate between the two frontrunners, incumbent president Emmanuel Macron and leader of the National Rally (RN) party Marine Le Pen.

Individual media outlets are responsible for organizing debates in France, with each network negotiating with the political parties. The networks propose their plans, and the candidates determine whether they participate in the debate and agree to the format, moderators, and director suggested. A political party representative for each candidate ("réalisateur conseil") is present in the control room with the director during the debates, there to ensure equity and equality for his/her candidate. The "réalisateur conseil" can request changes over certain camera shots and is there to make sure his candidate is featured in the same number of camera shots as the other candidate.

TF1, France's largest commercial network, and France 2, the public broadcaster, have traditionally produced the second-round presidential debate, with the moderators there to serve the dignity of the democratic exercise. A production charter (« charte de réalisation ») is signed by the two political parties and two networks producing the second-round presidential debate, which details how the debate will unfold (format, framing of shots, nature of the cutaways, distance between the two candidates, timings for candidates, etc.). The document is also signed and kept by l'Arcom should any disagreements arise between the signatories.

Germany

Televised debates in Germany started in 2002 in a format called "TV-Duell," with the leaders of the two major parties running to become chancellor being invited.

During the Merkel era, debates were a matter of agreement between the chancellor and the media organizations, as it had been in 2002 with former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. The four broadcasters had pulled together over the 16 years that Angela Merkel was chancellor of Germany to hold one joint debate in every election. With a panel of four journalists, each network involved in the debates was represented on stage when Merkel debated her various challengers over the years.

With Merkel's departure from the political stage, there were new candidates running for chancellor and all three were keen to debate. This led to the "Triell" in 2021, a series of three debates which featured the three main candidates. And for the first time since 2002, the country's four television broadcasters (two public and two private) did not hold a joint television head-to-head debate in that federal election. Instead, there were three three-way debates organized and broadcast by the various networks (public & private - a first in German history) and a final debate with all seven parties in the Bundestag, which ran three days before the election (a tradition dating back to 1972), on the two public broadcasters (ARD-ZDF).

Mexico

Debates in Mexico have been organized by the National Electoral Institute (INE) (which replaced the Federal Electoral Institute in 2014), the country's independent electoral Commission since 2006, holding subsequent debates in 2012, 2018 and 2024. The INE, which is widely considered as "one of the most trusted institutions" in the country, organizes federal and local elections, monitors political activity, and serves as the primary authority of the Mexican State on all electoral matters. Experts say the INE was instrumental in the country's democratic transition.

The INE was created in 2014 as a result of constitutional reform, with its main objective of this reform being the creation of an independent and citizen-led body with the role to organize elections in place of the government. Its central bodies are: General Council, the Presidency of the General Council, the Executive General Board, and the Executive Secretariat. Five of the 11 board members within the General Council make up the Commission which is responsible for organizing the debates. While there are representatives of the political parties in the 11 board members of the General Council, they have no vote and only five board members operationalize the Commission.

There have been televised presidential debates in Mexico since 1994, two debates in each election cycle (1994, 2000, 2006 and 2012). In 2018 and 2024, there were three official debates. The Commission has the authority to organize "at least" two mandatory debates among all candidates running for the presidency. This is in an enunciative but non limiting manner. Consequently, in both 2018 and 2024, the Commission determined the number of debates as three. The candidates are not obliged to participate in the Commission's debates.

In 2006, one of the candidates in the first debate decided not to attend. An empty chair was placed on stage in the candidate's place. Since 2006, the Commission has had final authority over the format of the presidential debates, thereby preventing the political parties from making all the decisions. Since 2006, the Commission has set the topics for the debates, but not the questions. Questions are determined by the moderators selected by the Commission.

In 2018, the Commission updated its approach to debates, modernizing its format. The new format was a departure from the previous years where rigid formats had been used. Its updated approach encouraged interaction and dialogue and promoted discussion. It included having the moderators take a leading role and citizen participation (asking questions directly to the candidates), making the format more flexible and dynamic. For all three debates in 2018, the Commission stipulated that it would define the formats, select the moderators, rules for moderation and production, determine the dates and venues of the debates, mechanisms for citizen participation, and inclusion of Mexican sign language. The debates in Mexico are defined as democratic exercises, there to provide voters with the dissemination and confrontation of ideas, programs, and electoral platforms of the candidates. They seek to generate information so that citizens who are going to decide the fate of the country have all the necessary information to make an informed vote.

The format and moderators are not approved by the candidates and questions are not shared with the candidates ahead of the debates. The Commission insists that the moderators must be journalists with live TV experience, setting criteria for selection that the moderators must meet. According to the Commission, the role of the moderator is to act as a facilitator, ensure that the focus of the debate is on the candidates and on their policy proposals and promote the exchanges between the candidates without involving their own opinion of the topics of the debate.

The television networks are mandated to broadcast two debates by the country's constitution. It's enshrined in law. The two mandatory presidential debates are transmitted on public radio and television networks (public and private).

The role of the INE is not only to define the rules, dates, and locations of the debates, but also to verify that media outlets are complying with their obligations to transmit the debates. The Commission decides which two of the three debates are mandatory for the networks to broadcast and decides which networks will broadcast them. The signal is free for the two mandatory debates. The INE not only takes the steps necessary to promote the transmission of the debates in the largest possible number of outlets and social media platforms, but it is also responsible for issuing guidelines to local or state electoral authorities and media outlets, although local-level debates are ultimately organized by other authorities, local media and/or associations.

In 2024, the INE developed three separate formats and for the first time, broadcast the debates in Mayan, Nahuatl, and Tzotzil, three national indigenous languages, and included interpretation in Mexican Sign Language. It also established a transparent four stage process for the selection of the moderators for each of the three debates.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is a recent adopter of the televised campaign debate, with a short history starting only in 2010 with subsequent debates taking place in the 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2024 general elections.

There is no formal system or central body overseeing the organization of television debates in the UK. Broadcasters must comply with the rules on due impartiality established during the election period by the country's broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, and negotiate participation and debate formats directly with political parties.

In 2010, the leaders of the three main political parties, which at the time were Labour, Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats, debated on three separate occasions in the UK's first televised debates, with the three debates reaching more than 22 million people and dominating the general election campaign. That year, broadcasters (ITV, BBC and Sky) acted as a consortium agreeing on both the format, rules and the number of debates with the political parties.

In the years since 2010, debates have become a central feature of general election campaigns in the UK and have been held at each subsequent election.

The broadcast consortium disbanded after the 2010 elections. All the debates since then have been a matter of agreement and negotiation between political parties and individual broadcasters, leading to discussions and negotiations around leader participation, format, and number of debates.

In 2015, three debates were organized as more parties were laying claim to electoral support that year. Negotiations between the political parties and media organizations were protracted, with proposals from broadcasters revised and consensus being hard to find.

In the end, David Cameron, the sitting prime minister, and leader of the Conservative Party, agreed to one debate - a multi-party debate with all the leaders of the seven major parties. A debate with the "challenger parties" featuring five party leaders was also organized. The election campaign coverage also saw a political program with the sitting prime minister, Labour and Liberal Democrat leaders taking questions sequentially from a studio audience, as well as interviews with the sitting prime minister and leader of the Labour Party.

That year, the Labour Party along with the DUP (Unionist and loyalist party in Northern Ireland) suggested that an independent Commission be set up. However, the arrangement between the media broadcasters and political parties remained in place.

In 2017, there were again negotiations between the various broadcasters and political parties on the number of debates, format, and on which leaders would take part in which debates, leading to a series of national and regional debates, political programs, and interviews. Only one debate took place with all the political parties, with Theresa May, the sitting prime minister, and leader of the Conservative Party, not taking part and opting to send the party's home secretary in her place. A second debate featured five party leaders. No debate was organized with the leaders of the two major parties. Theresa May's decision to not participate in the debates during that campaign, opting instead for an interview and taking questions from an audience, was criticized by other leaders. Upon leaving office, May expressed regret, stating: "I should have done the TV debates. I didn't because I had seen them suck the life blood out of David Cameron's campaign."

In 2018, private broadcaster Sky News called for the creation of an independent leaders' debates commission, receiving the support from the opposing Labour Party leader. The issue was debated in Parliament the following year, resulting in the arrangement between the media broadcasters and the political parties staying in place.

In 2019, debates were once again negotiated between the political parties and various broadcasters. The UK held at least five national debates, two head-to-head debates with the frontrunners likely to become prime minister and at least three debates with the main candidates or leading figures of all the parties. The debates with the frontrunners were a new approach for the country. The first head-to-head debate with the leaders of the Conservative and Labour parties took place at the beginning of the election campaign and the second was held six days before voting day. The other debates were scheduled closely together towards the middle of the campaign. A head-to-head (third one) and three-party debate were cancelled after agreements were not reached. That year saw a debate on the issue of climate change organized (with ice sculptures replacing two leaders) as well as political programs and individual interviews with party leaders.

The uncertainty and unpredictability related to the organization of debates at each general election remains in place in the UK. In July 2022, Sky News again reignited its call for an independent commission during the Conservative Party leadership race, describing the current nature of the debate environment in the country as the "Wild West."

In 2024, negotiations and discussions between individual broadcasters and political parties to decide and arrange the debates continued. Rishi Sunak, the sitting prime minister, and leader of the Conservative Party, wanted to take part in several debates, suggesting that at the start of the campaign that six debates should take place over the six-week campaign, thereby challenging the leader of Labour Party to debate him every week. In the end, two head-to-head debates took place, one was broadcast at the beginning of the campaign and the other towards the end. Two debates with the leaders or senior representatives of seven political parties were organized. The leaders of the four main political parties also participated in a political program where each leader sequentially took questions from the studio audience. Interviews with leaders again featured in the election campaign.

United States

Debates in the United States have been organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Established in 1987, the CPD is a private, non-for-profit, nonpartisan, and independent organization, receiving no funding from the government or any political party. Its mission consists of ensuring that debates take place every four years between and among the leading candidates for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States.

The CPD has organized and produced all the presidential debates in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020. Two to three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate have taken place at each election since 1988. The organization's goal is to serve and educate the American electorate and keep the focus of the debates on the candidates and their positions.

In each election since 2000, the CPD extends invitations to the debates to the candidates who have a "realistic chance of being elected President of the Unites States," relying on a 15% support threshold in a set of five national polls selected independently from the Commission.

The CPD is responsible for determining the format of their debates and for selecting the moderators, opting for one moderator for all its debates since 1996 (with one exception). The three criteria that they use for the selection of moderator are:

• "familiarity with the candidates and major issues of the campaign
• "extensive live TV news experience
• an understanding that the debate should focus maximum time and attention on the candidates and their views."

The moderators selected by the CPD are alone responsible for determining the topics and questions of the debates.

On May 15, 2024, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump announced that they would not participate in the debates hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates, instead agreeing to  to take part in two alternative debates with two television networks. The first debate took place on June 27^th on CNN. Following a poor debate performance and growing pressure to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, President Biden announced on July 21 that he was standing down, endorsing his Vice President Kamala Harris.

In August 2024, former President Donald Trump said he had agreed to debate Kamala Harris on Fox News on September 4^th, but the Harris campaign said it would keep to the original plan for a second debate on ABC News. The second debate and first debate presidential debate between Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump took place on September 10^th on ABC News.

A vice-presidential debate between Republican Senator J.D. Vance and Democratic Governor Tim Walz was agreed for October 1^st on CBS News.