Democracy Paradox

As long as people are able to cast their ballot, irrespective of the illiberalism, irrespective of all these other shortcomings, democracy, at least from a voting standpoint, has the capacity to surprise.

Neil Devotta

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

Neil DeVotta is professor of politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University. His article "Sri Lanka's Agony" was published in this July's issue of Journal of Democracy.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:38
• Overview of the Protests - 3:15
• Protests After the Rajapaksas - 15:16
• Background on the Rajapaksas - 24:58
• Sri Lanka and Democracy - 30:31
• Future of Sri Lanka - 34:11

Key Links

Learn more about Neil DeVotta

"Sri Lanka's Agony" by Neil DeVotta in the Journal of Democracy

"Sri Lanka: The Return to Ethnocracy" by Neil DeVotta in the Journal of Democracy

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Ashutosh Varshney on India. Democracy in Hard Places

Mark Beissinger on Urban Civic Revolutions

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The US consumer system is uniquely exploitative. US consumers are exploited by American companies, by French companies, by German companies, by Chinese companies, because there aren't laws protecting consumer data privacy that extend widely across the US consumer ecosystem. The main difference with Chinese companies is that the Chinese government has established an entire framework that pressures Chinese firms to share their data with Chinese government regulators.

Aynne Kokas

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

Aynne Kokas is an associate professor of media studies and the C.K. Yen Chair at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. Her most recent book is Trafficking Data: How China Is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty. Her article "How Beijing Runs the Show in Hollywood" was published in this April's issue of Journal of Democracy.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:50
• Video Games as Social Media - 3:02
• Chinese Brands in the US Tech Market - 11:34
• Party Control of China's Tech Industry - 19:40
• America's Lack of Tech Regulations - 28:36
• The Big Picture - 37:03

Key Links

Learn more about Aynne Kokas

Trafficking Data: How China Is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty by Aynne Kokas

"How Beijing Runs the Show in Hollywood" by Aynne Kokas in the Journal of Democracy

Visit the Miller Center at the University of Virginia

Democracy Paradox Podcast

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

Mareike Ohlberg on the Global Influence of the Chinese Communist Party

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There are a lot of people quietly who are deeply frustrated with this war. Every rich person in Russia with one or two exceptions are frustrated with this war. I think many of the so-called liberal technocratic elites in the government are frustrated with this war. Lots of regional leaders are frustrated with this war. It's not just the vocal opposition. I think there's a quiet minority and maybe even majority that is exhausted with what Putin has done.

Michael McFaul

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

Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, is professor of political science at Stanford University, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. His most recent book is From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia (2018). Robert Person is associate professor of international relations at the U.S. Military Academy, director of its international affairs curriculum, and faculty affiliate at its Modern War Institute. Their essay "What Putin Fears Most" was published as an online exclusive from the Journal of Democracy in February and was included in the April 2022 issue.

Key Highlights

• Introduction 0:48
• Personal Account from Michael McFaul 3:16
• Putin's Objectives 7:44
• What would Russia be like without Putin? 12:22
• Challenges for democracy in Ukraine 20:10
• Effectiveness of sanctions 24:15
• Where is the Russian Revolution going? 27:11

Key Links

Learn more about Michael McFaul

"What Putin Fears Most" by Robert Person and Michael McFaul in the Journal of Democracy

From Cold War To Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin's Russia by Michael McFaul

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Kathryn Stoner on How Putin’s War has Ruined Russia

Marta Dyczok and Andriy Kulokov on the Media, Information Warriors, and the Future of Ukraine

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I think they're really important. But I don't think that they are a complete safeguard. Certainly, when you create democracies in hard places, you want to think very carefully about what institutions you want in place and how you strengthen them. But if you get illiberal governing parties in democracies in hard places, they can run over institutions.

Scott Mainwaring

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

Scott Mainwaring is the Eugene P. and Helen Conley Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He is also a faculty fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, where he previously served as director for 13 years and is a current Advisory Board member. He is the coeditor (with Tarek Masoud) of Democracy in Hard Places.

Key Highlights

• Introduction 0:47
• Why is Argentina a hard place for democracy? 2:35
• Are democracies in hard places the exception or the norm? 9:19
• Is Peronism a threat to democracy? 12:01
• How can democracies strengthen institutions? 19:32
• What role do citizens play? 33:27

Key Links

Learn more about Scott Mainwaring

"The Fates Of Third-Wave Democracies" by Scott Mainwaring and Fernando Bizarro in the Journal of Democracy

Democracy in Hard Places edited by Scott Mainwaring and Tarek Masoud

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Lucan Way on Ukraine. Democracy in Hard Places.

Rachel Beatty Riedl on Benin. Democracy in Hard Places.

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The war is never going to really end. Because even in the most optimistic scenario where Ukraine regains its territory and it goes back to the 1991 borders, Russia is almost certainly going to present a permanent threat to Ukrainian sovereignty. I think objectively it will. But even if objectively it wasn’t, after such an invasion, you can imagine the political environment's going to treat it as one.

Lucan Way

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

Lucan Way is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. He coauthored (along with Steven Levitsky) Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War. He has a new book also coauthored with Steven Levitsky due this fall called Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism. He is the author of the chapter "Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine: Democratic Moments in the Former Soviet Union" in the book Democracy in Hard Places.

Key Highlights

• What makes Zelensky such a special leader?
• Why wasn't Ukraine considered more democratic before Russia's invasion?
• How has the war impacted democracy in Ukraine?
• What role did Ukraine's ethnic pluralism contribute to democratization?
• What challenges will Ukrainian democracy face after its war with Russia?

Key Links

Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism by Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way

Follow the Lucan Way on Twitter @LucanWay

"The Rebirth of the Liberal World Order?" by Lucan Way in the Journal of Democracy

Democracy in Hard Places edited by Scott Mainwaring and Tarek Masoud

Democracy Paradox Podcast

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

Stephan Haggard and Robert Kaufman on Democratic Backsliding

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Democracy is a complex concept. It has to do with elections. It has to do with legislatures. It has to do with civil society organizations and courts and political styles of politicians. There's a lot packed into the concept and it's multidimensional, because some of these components don't move together.

Michael Coppedge

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

Michael Coppedge is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, a principal investigator of the Varieties of Democracy project, and a faculty fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. He is a coeditor (along with Amanda Edgell, Carl Henrik Knutsen, and Staffan Lindberg) of Why Democracies Develop and Decline.

Key Highlights

• Democracy as a multidimensional concept
• How the conditions for democratization differ from those for backsliding
• Ways researchers use information from V-Dem to discover new insights about democracy
• New findings from V-Dem research regarding presidentialism, party system institutionalization, and anti-system parties
• How has V-Dem changed research about democracy

Key Links

Learn more about the Varieties of Democracy Project

Follow the V-Dem Institute on Twitter @vdeminstitute

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

Democracy Paradox Podcast

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

Stephan Haggard and Robert Kaufman on Democratic Backsliding

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Democracy Group

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So, at some level, a belief in democracy was necessary in Benin as in elsewhere. Support for it - Absolutely. But what's interesting in the Benin case is that you were lacking that level of political elite leadership that were committed democratic ideologues.

Rachel Beatty Riedl

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

Rachel Beatty Riedl is the John S. Knight Professor of International Studies, Director of the Einaudi Center for International Studies, and professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University. She also cohosts the podcast Ufahamu Africa with Kim Yi Dionne. Her chapter "Africa’s Democratic Outliers Success amid Challenges in Benin and South Africa" appears in the forthcoming book Democracy in Hard Places.

Key Highlights

• Details the story of Benin's democratization
• How Benin has used consensus to govern
• What makes Benin a democracy in a hard place
• An overview of the current President Patrice Talon
• Current threats to democracy in Benin

Key Links

Learn more about the Einaudi Center for International Studies

Listen to the Ufahamu Podcast

Follow Rachel Beatty Riedl on Twitter @BeattyRiedl

Democracy in Hard Places edited by Scott Mainwaring and Tarek Masoud

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Evan Lieberman on South Africa

Christophe Jaffrelot on Narendra Modi and Hindu Nationalism

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Democracy Group

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Nehru is asked several times in those early years, ‘Aren’t you doing something which has never been done before? You are 17% literate. Half of your country is below the poverty line. Under such conditions no democracy has ever stabilize itself and perhaps has not emerged.’ And his argument repeatedly is that we shouldn't be constrained by the history of the West.

Ashutosh Varshney

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

Ashutosh Varshney is the Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Brown University, where he also directs the Center for Contemporary South Asia. His chapter "India’s Democratic Longevity and Its Troubled Trajectory" appears in the forthcoming book Democracy in Hard Places.

Key Highlights

• How India defied early theories of democratization
• The role of leadership in India's early democracy
• Why India returned to democracy after Indira Gandhi's emergency?
• The eerie similarities between India's recent treatment of Muslims and the rise of the Jim Crow era in the American South
• When will democratic backsliding in India become a democratic collapse

Key Links

"Modi Consolidates Power: Electoral Vibrancy, Mounting Liberal Deficits" by Ashutosh Varshney in Journal of Democracy

Learn more about Ashutosh Varshney at www.ashutoshvarshney.net

Follow Ashutosh Varshney on Twitter @ProfVarshney

Democracy in Hard Places edited by Scott Mainwaring and Tarek Masoud

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Dan Slater on Indonesia

Christophe Jaffrelot on Narendra Modi and Hindu Nationalism

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Democracy Group

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When you hear people talk in such disparaging tones, that everything is broken, that nothing is possible, you need to ask yourself, is that right? When you look around, the answer is no. There are these examples where things do go right, where people work together and create a neighborhood or a community for themselves in which they can be prosperous and build better lives. And that's really what the democratic project is all about.

Evan Lieberman

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

Evan Lieberman is a Professor of Political Science and Contemporary Africa at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Director of the MIT Global Diversity Lab, and the faculty director of the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI). He is the coauthor with Rorisang Lekalake of the recent article "South Africa's Resilient Democracy" in the Journal of Democracy and author of the forthcoming book Until We Have Won Our Liberty: South Africa after Apartheid.

Key Highlights

• Why is Evan Lieberman optimistic about democracy in South Africa
• Role of Nelson Mandela on South Africa's democracy
• Importance of South Africa for democracy in the world
• Account of the housing community Ethembalethu
• What the 2019 election says about democracy in South Africa

Key Links

Until We Have Won Our Liberty: South Africa after Apartheid by Evan Lieberman

"South Africa’s Resilient Democracy" by Evan Lieberman and Rorisang Lekalake in Journal of Democracy

Learn more about Evan Lieberman at www.evanlieberman.org

Follow Evan Lieberman on Twitter @evlieb

Democracy in Hard Places edited by Scott Mainwaring and Tarek Masoud

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Dan Slater on Indonesia

Nic Cheeseman and Gabrielle Lynch on the Moral Economy of Elections in Africa

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This might sound like a cliche, but in Indonesia it's really, really true. My hope rests in the Indonesian people and the voters. I mean, the voters, they show up. The voters have been the ones to defend democracy. They've been the ones to reject the most anti-pluralistic candidates, not all Indonesian voters, but a slim majority. They've been managing to do it.

Dan Slater

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

Dan Slater is the Weiser Professor of Emerging Democracies in the Department of Political Science and director of the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies at the University of Michigan. Dan is also the coauthor of the forthcoming book From Development to Democracy: The Transformations of Modern Asia with Joseph Wong.

Key Highlights

• A brief account of how Indonesia democratized
• What is democratization through strength
• How elites held onto power after democratization
• What makes Indonesia a hard place for democracy
• The current state of Indonesia's democracy

Key Links

From Development to Democracy: The Transformations of Modern Asia by Dan Slater and Joseph Wong

Democracy in Hard Places edited by Scott Mainwaring and Tarek Masoud

Follow Dan Slater on Twitter @SlaterPolitics

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Donald Horowitz on the Formation of Democratic Constitutions

Sebastian Strangio Explains the Relationship Between China and Southeast Asia

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Democracy Group

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