I think his heart is in the right place. I've talked to him about these things. He's very sensitive to the judgment of history. He knows that. Ukraine has been fighting since long before he became president to be an independent sovereign democracy with freedom of speech.

Simon Shuster

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Read Justin Kempf's essay "The Revolution Will Be Podcasted."

Simon Shuster is a staff writer for Time magazine who covers politics in Ukraine and Russia. His new book is called The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• The Early Zelensky - 3:30
• Wartime President - 19:16
• Politics in Wartime Ukraine - 33:59
• Democracy in Ukraine - 36:18

Key Links

The Showman: Inside the Invasion that Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky by Simon Shuster

"Where Zelensky Comes From" by Simon Shuster in Time

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Serhii Plokhy on the Russo-Ukrainian War

Olga Onuch and Henry Hale Describe the Zelensky Effect

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When politics has to solve the problems that it has caused, how can politics do that?

Marcela Rios Tobar

This episode was made in partnership with the Constitution Building Programme at International IDEA

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Marcela Rios Tobar is the Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at International IDEA. From March 2022 until January 2023 she served as the Minister of Justice and Human Rights in Chile under Gabriel Boric.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• Background - 3:40
• The Draft Constitutions - 18:04
• Lost Opportunity? 35:11
• Exceptional or Harbinger - 46:55

Key Links

Learn more about International IDEA

Learn about the Constitution-Building Programme at International IDEA at Constitutionnet.org

Read more about Chile's constitutional journey

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Jennifer Piscopo on the Constitutional Chaos in Chile

Aldo Madariaga on Neoliberalism, Democratic Deficits, and Chile

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Populist leaders want polarization. They start polarization. They confront. 

Kurt Weyland

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Kurt Weyland is the Mike Hogg Professor in Liberal Arts. He has written many books. His most recent is Democracy's Resilience to Populism's Threat: Countering Global Alarmism. He has also authored the article "Why Democracy Survives Populism" in the Journal of Democracy.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:45
• Democratic Breakdown in Peru - 2:56
• The Populist Threat - 18:46
• Institutional Strength - 25:19
• Countering Global Alarmism - 46:19

Key Links

"Why Democracy Survives Populism" by Kurt Weyland in Journal of Democracy

Democracy's Resilience to Populism's Threat: Countering Global Alarmism by Kurt Weyland

Assault on Democracy: Communism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism During the Interwar Years by Kurt Weyland

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Kurt Weyland Distinguishes Between Fascism and Authoritarianism

Jason Brownlee Believes We Underestimate Democratic Resilience

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That's the point here. It's not there yet. But if electorally the BJP keeps winning, this is a prospect that must be faced.

Ashutosh Varshney

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Ashutosh Varshney is the Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences at Brown University. He is the author of many books and papers on India and its politics. His most recent article (coauthored with Connor Staggs), published in Journal of Democracy, is "Hindu Nationalism and the New Jim Crow."

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 1:31
• Hindu Nationalism - 3:48
• Jim Crow and India - 12:08
• Vigilantism - 23:53
• Solutions - 34:46

Key Links

"Hindu Nationalism and the New Jim Crow" by Ashutosh Varshney and Connor Staggs in Journal of Democracy

"India’s Democracy at 70: Growth, Inequality, and Nationalism" by Ashutosh Varshney in Journal of Democracy

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Ashutosh Varshney on India. Democracy in Hard Places

Is India Still a Democracy? Rahul Verma Emphatically Says Yes

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What we really need to do is recommit to the idea that this is difficult, it is valuable, and in order to keep this valuable, difficult thing going, we need to basically pay the cost of educating ourselves, educating the next generation, the background knowledge and skills that citizens need if they are to continue to govern themselves...

Josiah Ober

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Josiah Ober is a Professor of Classics and Political Science at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is the coauthor, along with Brook Manville, of The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:49
• What is Democracy? 3:15
• Conditions and Constraints - 20:17
• Classical Democracy - 24:26
• Future of Democracy - 39:21

Key Links

The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives by Brook Manville and Josiah Ober

Demopolis: Democracy before Liberalism in Theory and Practice by Josiah Ober

Lean more about Josiah Ober

Democracy Paradox Podcast

How Can Democracy Survive in an Age of Discontent? Rachel Navarre and Matthew Rhodes-Purdy on Populism and Political Extremism

Marc Plattner Has Quite a Bit to Say About Democracy

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If these Islamist organizations want to stay in these contexts and keep playing the democratic game, they need to commit to the democratic game in the longer run.

Sebnem Gumuscu

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Sebnem Gumuscu is an associate professor of political science at Middlebury College and the author of Democracy or Authoritarianism: Islamist Governments in Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:31
• What is Islamism - 2:48
• Liberal and Electoralists - 19:23
• Role of Elites - 35:16
• Islamism in the Long Run - 37:09

Key Links

Democracy or Authoritarianism: Islamist Governments in Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia by Sebnem Gumuscu

"How Erdoğan’s Populism Won Again'" by Sebnem Gumuscu and Berk Esen

Follow Sebnem Gumuscu on X @sebnemisback

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Berk Esen and Sebnem Gumuscu on the Disappointing Elections in Turkey… or How Democratic (or Autocratic) is Turkey Really?

Shadi Hamid on Democracy, Liberalism, and the Middle East

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In the past 26 years, to this day, there has not been one major Hollywood production that has gone against a major Chinese Communist Party red line. Not one. Twenty-six years of silence.

Bethany Allen

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Bethany Allen is the China reporter at Axios and the author of Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:48
• The Authoritarian Economic Statecraft of China - 3:32
• Trump Administration and China Policy - 22:24
• Another Cold War -  34:26
• American Options for Response - 48:16

Key Links

Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World by Bethany Allen

"Zoom closed account of U.S.-based Chinese activist 'to comply with local law'" by Bethany Allen

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Hal Brands Thinks China is a Declining Power… Here’s Why that’s a Problem

Josh Chin on China’s Surveillance State

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If we're thinking about democracy as something broader that is producing equality, justice or these kind of things, often those policies that we might describe as democratic policies can emerge from processes that are undemocratic. I think that's uncomfortable for us to think about.

Katlyn Carter

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Katlyn Carter is an assistant professor of history at Notre Dame University. She is the author of Democracy in Darkness: Secrecy and Transparency in the Age of Revolutions.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:41
• The Birth of Republics - 3:10
• Publicity - 19:23
• Spectacle - 26:43
• Representation - 35:43

Key Links

Democracy in Darkness: Secrecy and Transparency in the Age of Revolutions by Katlyn Carter

Katlyn Carter on My History Can Beat Up Your Politics

Learn more about Katlyn Carter

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Heather Cox Richardson on History, Conservatism, and the Awakening of American Democracy

Daniel Ziblatt on American Democracy, the Republican Party, and the Tyranny of the Minority

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I think populism is rather a specific form of discontent. Discontent is the umbrella term. It's this vague sense that the way things are being done is not working. That democracy is not effective. That it's not serving my interests.

Matthew Rhodes-Purdy

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Rachel Navarre is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Master of Public Administration Program at Bridgewater State University. Matthew Rhodes-Purdy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Clemson University. They are the coauthors (along with Stephen Utych) of The Age of Discontent: Populism, Extremism, and Conspiracy Theories in Contemporary Democracies.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:53
• What is Discontent - 3:21
• Crisis and Discontent - 13:34
• Rise of Populism - 25:13
• An End to Neoliberalism? - 39:20

Key Links

The Age of Discontent: Populism, Extremism, and Conspiracy Theories in Contemporary Democracies by Matthew Rhodes-Purdy, Rachel Navarre, and Stephen Utych

Learn more about Rachel Navarre here.

Learn more about Matthew Rhodes-Purdy here.

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Daniel Ziblatt on American Democracy, the Republican Party, and the Tyranny of the Minority

Marc Plattner Has Quite a Bit to Say About Democracy

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This was an election that was meant to cement authoritarian rule and it became a democratic breakthrough.

Rachel Schwartz

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Rachel Schwartz is an assistant professor of international and area studies at the University of Oklahoma. Recently, she cowrote an article with Anita Isaacs for the Journal of Democracy called, “How Guatemala Defied the Odds." She also authored a book earlier this year called Undermining the State from Within: The Institutional Legacies of Civil War in Central America.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:33
• The 2023 Election - 2:46
• A Weak State - 17:18
• Democratic Backsliding - 30:53
• Rejuvenating Democracy - 39:39

Key Links

Undermining the State from Within: The Institutional Legacies of Civil War in Central America by Rachel Schwartz

"How Guatemala Defied the Odds" in Journal of Democracy by Rachel Schwartz

"Guatemala: Resisting Democratic Backsliding in the Least Likely of Places?" by Rachel Schwartz

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Wendy Hunter on Lula, Bolsonaro, January 8th and Democracy in Brazil

Jennifer Piscopo on the Constitutional Chaos in Chile

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100 Books on Democracy

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