Democracy Paradox

The thing that really astonishes me is that there's never any agency given to Iraqis, both during the war and the occupation, but also 20 years later. It always goes back to what the Americans did. There's a defeatism about Iraq's ability to do anything on its own and I think that's at the heart of why people can't see anything democratic in the country.

Marsin Alshamary

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A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.

Marsin Alshamary is a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative and nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Middle East Policy. She is the author of the paper "Iraq’s Struggle for Democracy" in the Journal of Democracy.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:41
• Is Iraq a Democracy - 3:37
• Iraqi Social Cleavages - 9:20
• Iraqi Consociationalism - 26:33
• Challenges to Democracy in Iraq - 36:55

Key Links

"Iraq’s Struggle for Democracy" in the Journal Democracy by Marsin Alshamary

Follow Marsin Alshamary on Twitter @MarsinRA

Learn more about Marsin Alshamary

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Steven Simon on American Foreign Policy in the Middle East including Iran and the Wars in Iraq

Larry Diamond on Supporting Democracy in the World and at Home

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The problem in both cases is not Zuckerberg or Musk, but the idea of a Zuckerberg or Musk. The idea that, simply by virtue of owning and controlling a particular technology, someone wields arbitrary or unaccountable power which can touch every aspect of our liberty and our democracy.

Jamie Susskind

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Jamie Susskind is an author and barrister. He has held fellowships at Cambridge and Harvard Universities. His work is at the crossroads of technology, politics, and law. His most recent book is The Digital Republic: On Freedom and Democracy in the 21st Century.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:44
• Challenges of Digital Technology - 3:18
• Artificial Intelligence - 20:09
• A Digital Republic - 40:27
• Possible Solutions - 43:42

Key Links

The Digital Republic: On Freedom and Democracy in the 21st Century by Jamie Susskind

Follow Jamie Susskind on Twitter @jamiesusskind

Learn more about Jamie Susskind

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Samuel Woolley on Bots, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Propaganda

Ronald Deibert from Citizen Lab on Cyber Surveillance, Digital Subversion, and Transnational Repression

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Who would be a better ally than Ukrainians? These are people who are fighting so bravely and have shown so much resilience. That's what we should want in an ally.

James Goldgeier

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James Goldgeier is a a Professor of International Relations at American University. He is also a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University's Center on International Security and Cooperation and a Visiting Fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. Recently, he is the coeditor with Joshua Itzkowitz Shifrinson of a new book called Evaluating NATO Enlargement: From Cold War Victory to the Russia-Ukraine War.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:35
• Purpose of NATO - 2:37
• NATO Expansion - 16:00
• NATO and Democratization - 22:41
• Future of NATO - 32:42

Key Links

Evaluating NATO Enlargement: From Cold War Victory to the Russia-Ukraine War edited by James Goldgeier and Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson

Power and Purpose: U.S. Policy toward Russia After the Cold War by James Goldgeier and Michael McFaul

Learn more about James Goldgeier

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Robert Kagan Looks to American History to Explain Foreign Policy Today

Michael McFaul and Robert Person on Putin, Russia, and the War in Ukraine

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The Iraqis suffered so heavily and not just because of the 2003 war. The first war in 1991 inflicted terrible damage on Iraq and then the next 10 years of sanctions immiserated the populace and inflicted an especially punishing blow on Iraqi women and children.

Steven Simon

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Steven served on the National Security Council staff from 1994 to 1999 and again fro 2011 to 2012. Earlier he served in the State Department for fifteen years. He is currently a Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies and his most recent book is Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:43
• Iran - 4:41
• JCPOA - 22:58
• The Iraq Wars - 27:19
• Saudi Arabia - 32:57

Key Links

Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East by Steven Simon

Learn more about Steven Simon

"America's Great Satan" By Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon in Foreign Affairs

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Robert Kagan Looks to American History to Explain Foreign Policy Today

Zoltan Barany on the Ineffectiveness of the Gulf Militaries

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Democracy Group

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Democracy is a much more complicated thing than we often give it credit for and certainly speaking dichotomously about democracy being in crisis or not is an oversimplification.

Larry Bartels

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Larry Bartels is the May Werthan Shayne Chair of Public Policy and Social Science at Vanderbilt University and a Co-Director for the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. His new book is called Democracy Erodes from the Top: Leaders, Citizens, and the Challenge of Populism in Europe.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:34
• A Crisis of Democracy? 3:02
• Populism 23:20
• Political Restraint - 37:49
• What is Democracy? 44:51

Key Links

Democracy Erodes from the Top: Leaders, Citizens, and the Challenge of Populism in Europe by Larry Bartels

Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government by Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels

Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Martin Wolf on the Crisis of Democratic Capitalism

Jason Brownlee Believes We Underestimate Democratic Resilience

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One of the things that we see happening online is sort of a democratization of propaganda.

Samuel Woolley

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Samuel Woolley is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and the project director for propaganda research at the Center for Media Engagement. His most recent book is Manufacturing Consensus: Understanding Propaganda in the Era of Automation and Anonymity.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:43
• Background on Technology (including Bots) - 3:00
• Artificial Intelligence - 10:17
• Democratization of Propaganda - 20:44
• The Legitimation of Ideas - 30:48

Key Links

Manufacturing Consensus: Understanding Propaganda in the Era of Automation and Anonymity by Samuel Woolley

"Digital Propaganda: The Power of Influencers" in the Journal of Democracy by Samuel Woolley

Center for Media Engagement

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Richard Wike Asked Citizens in 19 Countries Whether Social Media is Good for Democracy

Ronald Deibert from Citizen Lab on Cyber Surveillance, Digital Subversion, and Transnational Repression

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Democracy Group

Apes of the State created all Music

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100 Books on Democracy

Democracy Paradox is part of the Amazon Affiliates Program and earns commissions on items purchased from links to the Amazon website. All links are to recommended books discussed in the podcast or referenced in the blog.

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It's hard to believe what was happening in Xinjiang and most Chinese people didn't believe, but now they do. A lot of them do.

Josh Chin

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Josh Chin is the Deputy Bureau Chief for China at the Wall Street Journal and the coauthor with Liza Lin of the book Surveillance State: Inside China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:38
• Describing Xinjiang - 2:38
• Social Engineering - 11:21
• Privacy in China - 19:08
• AI in China - 28:23

Key Links

Surveillance State: Inside China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control by Josh Chin and Liza Lin

Read more from Josh Chin in the Wall Street Journal

"The Mandarin in the Machine" A review of Surveillance State in Journal of Democracy by Will Dobson

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Elizabeth Economy in a Wide Ranging Conversation About China

Aynne Kokas on the Intersection Between Surveillance Capitalism and Chinese Sharp Power (or How Much Does the CCP Already Know About You?)

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Democracy dies with the lies. Even that simplest form of democracy, which is that we vote on a politician or we don't and we vote on another politician depends on the truth. Because if you can lie about what you did in office or lie about what you didn't do, that sort of vertical accountability breaks down. It becomes meaningless.

Staffan Lindberg

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Staffan Lindberg is the Director of the V-Dem Institute, one of the five principal investigators of the Varieties of Democracy Project, and a Professor of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg. He is also a coeditor of the book Why Democracies Develop and Decline along with Michael Coppedge, Amanda B. Edgell, and Carl Henrik Knutsen.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:46
• Bright Spots for Democracy - 3:24
• Autocratization and Democratic Backsliding - 13:20
• Causes of Democratic Recession - 22:25
• Criticisms of the Report - 34:56

Key Links

Why Democracies Develop and Decline edited by Michael Coppedge, Amanda B. Edgell, Carl Henrik Knutsen, and Staffan Lindberg

Learn more about V-DEM

"A Third Wave of Autocratization is Here: What is New About it?" in Democratization by Anna Lührmann and Staffan Lindberg

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Michael Coppedge on Why Democracies Emerge, Why They Decline, and Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem)

Sarah Repucci from Freedom House with an Update on Freedom in the World

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Apes of the State created all Music

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Democracy Paradox is part of the Amazon Affiliates Program and earns commissions on items purchased from links to the Amazon website. All links are to recommended books discussed in the podcast or referenced in the blog.

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It is one Putin when you see him on a calendar. It's yet another Putin when he needs to arrest a snowman.

Srdja Popovic

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Srdja Popovic is the co-founder of CANVAS, and was a founding member of the Otpor! (“Resistance!”) a movement that had a crucial part in bringing down the Milosevic regime in Serbia. He recently coauthored an article in the Journal of Democracy with Sophia McClennen and Joe Wright called, “How to Sharpen a Nonviolent Movement.”

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:27
• What are Dilemma Actions? 2:24
• Different Types of Dilemma Actions - 18:53
• Effectiveness - 33:01
• Strategies and Tactics - 38:37

Key Links

"How to Sharpen a Nonviolent Movement" in the Journal of Democracy by Sophia McClennen, Srdja Popovic, and Joseph Wright

Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World  by Srdja Popovic with Matthew Miller

Learn more about CANVAS

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Mohammed Ali Kadivar on Paths to Durable Democracy and Thoughts on the Protests in Iran

Erica Chenoweth on Civil Resistance

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I do want to underscore this should not be read as a victory of the left. It's a victory of Lula and a narrow victory. And it's Lula the person. It's not so much Lula from the PT as the party that won.

Wendy Hunter

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Wendy Hunter is a Professor of Government at the University of Texas Austin. Recently, she cowrote an article with Timothy Power in the Journal of Democracy called “Lula’s Second Act.”

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:36
• Lula - 2:16
• The 2022 Presidential Election - 13:01
• Bolsonaro - 20:45
• January 8th - 27:18

Key Links

"Lula's Second Act" in the Journal of Democracy by Wendy Hunter and Timothy J. Power

"Bolsonaro and Brazil’s Illiberal Backlash" in the Journal of Democracy by Wendy Hunter and Timothy J. Power

"The Normalization of an Anomaly: The Workers' Party in Brazil" in World Politics by Wendy Hunter

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Jennifer Piscopo on the Constitutional Chaos in Chile

Amy Erica Smith on Politics and Religion in Brazil

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Apes of the State created all Music

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100 Books on Democracy

Democracy Paradox is part of the Amazon Affiliates Program and earns commissions on items purchased from links to the Amazon website. All links are to recommended books discussed in the podcast or referenced in the blog.

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