Democracy Paradox

India should be understood as a test case of democracy outside the Western world.

Rahul Verma

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Rahul Verma is a fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. He is also Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, Ashoka University. Recently, he wrote “The Exaggerated Death of Indian Democracy” in the recent Journal of Democracy.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:44
• India's Democracy Paradox - 2:24
• Reconciling Illiberalism - 15:54
• Sources of Indian Democratic Deficits - 20:02
• Overstating and Understating Indian Democracy - 30:50

Key Links

"The Exaggerated Death of Indian Democracy" in Journal of Democracy by Rahul Verma

Centre for Policy Research

Follow Rahul Verma on Twitter @rahul_tverma

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Ashutosh Varshney on India. Democracy in Hard Places

Christophe Jaffrelot on Narendra Modi and Hindu Nationalism

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It would be a miracle if the original understanding of the Constitution just landed time and time again with the views in 2023 of the right-wing of the Republican Party. That would be too amazing a coincidence. That's more than troublesome.

Cass Sunstein

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Cass Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School. During Obama’s first term he was the Administrator for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He is the author of dozens of books including Nudge(with Richard Thaler) and The World According to Star Wars. His most recent book is How to Interpret the Constitution.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:38
• Thinking about the Constitution - 3:06
• Different Interpretations - 10:44
• Textualism - 24:07
• Amendment or Interpretation - 37:23

Key Links

How to Interpret the Constitution  by Cass Sunstein

The World According to Star Wars  by Cass Sunstein

Follow Cass Sunstein on Twitter @CassSunstein

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Joseph Fishkin on the Constitution, American History, and Economic Inequality

Donald Horowitz on the Formation of Democratic Constitutions

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I think we have a more complex notion of what democracy is. 

- Marc Plattner

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Marc Plattner is the founding coeditor of the Journal of Democracy and the founding codirector of the National Endowment for Democracy’s International Forum for Democratic Studies. Until 2016, he also served as NED’s vice president for research and studies, and from 1984 to 1989 he was NED’s director of program.  He is the author of Democracy Without Borders? Global Challenges to Liberal Democracy (2008) and of Rousseau’s State of Nature(1979). His essays and reviews on a wide range of international and public policy issues have appeared in numerous books and journals, and he has coedited with Larry Diamond more than two dozen books on contemporary issues relating to democracy in the Journal of Democracy book series.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:48
• Democratic Consensus - 2:32
• Liberalism and Democracy - 10:26
• Democratic Threats - 20:58
• Governance - 28:51

Key Links

"Why Ukraine Is Critical to Rebuilding Our Democratic Consensus" in the Journal of Democracy by Marc Plattner

"Democracy Embattled" in the Journal of Democracy by Marc Plattner

"Liberalism and Democracy: Can’t Have One Without the Other" in Foreign Affairs by Marc Plattner

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Anne Applebaum on Autocracy, Inc

Larry Diamond on Supporting Democracy in the World and at Home

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It's too simplistic to call it an evil company. There are certainly a lot of very good people that work there. It's just the system itself and the corporation itself and the system that it's embedded in is what causes the problems.

Michael Forsythe

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Michael Forsythe is a reporter on the investigations team at The New York Times. Until February 2017 he was a correspondent in the Hong Kong office, focusing on the intersection of money and politics in China. He is the author (along with Walt Bogdanich) of When McKinsey Comes to Town: the Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:35
• Who is McKinsey & Company? - 3:14
• Is it Anti-Democratic? - 17:55
• Working with Autocrats - 34:17
• Can it Change? - 44:33

Key Links

When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe

"How McKinsey Lost Its Way in South Africa" in The New York Times by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe

Follow Michael Forsythe on Twitter @PekingMike

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Anne Applebaum on Autocracy, Inc

Samuel Woolley on Bots, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Propaganda

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Spin dictators have fewer political prisoners, fewer political killings. This is good. This is really good. On the other hand, we want to tell everybody that they are still dictators.

Sergei Guriev

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Sergei Guriev is a professor of Economics at Sciences Po in Paris. He was a former chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the former rector of the New Economic School in Moscow. He is the coauthor (along with Daniel Treisman) of Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:46
• Spin Dictatorships and Fear Dictatorships - 3:12
• Popular Support - 25:21
• Putin - 39:44
• Beyond Spin Dictatorship - 43:49

Key Links

Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century by Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman

"Informational Autocrats" in the Journal of Economic Perspectives by Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman

Follow Sergei Guriev on Twitter @sguriev

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Anne Applebaum on Autocracy, Inc

Larry Bartels Says Democracy Erodes from the Top

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Elections are not free or fair, but they matter greatly because this is how Erdoğan comes to power and stays in power and in this case he was almost about to lose that power.

Sebnem Gumuscu

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Berk Esen is an assistant professor of political science at Sabancı University. Sebnem Gumuscu is an associate professor of political science at Middlebury College. Their recent paper in the Journal of Democracy is “How Erdoğan’s Populism Won Again.”

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:33
• Democracy in Turkey - 3:30
• The Opposition - 21:36
• The AKP - 27:40
• Is Democracy Lost? - 41:01

Key Links

"How Erdoğan’s Populism Won Again" in Journal of Democracy by Berk Esen and Sebnem Gumuscu

Democratic Erosion: A Research, Teaching, & Policy Collaboration

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

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Dan Slater on Thailand’s Revolutionary Election

Anne Applebaum on Autocracy, Inc

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The most dangerous states in the international system aren't necessarily revisionist powers that think that their trajectory points continually upward. It's those countries that have been growing, rising for a long time, and then fear that they are peaking and are about to decline. Those are the countries that are inclined to take the biggest risks to try to improve their position in the the here and now before things get worse for them in the future.

Hal Brands

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Hal Brands is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is the coauthor (with Michael Beckley) of Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China and the author of The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us About Great-Power Rivalry Today.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:43
• Peaking Power Theory - 3:12
• The Original Cold War - 22:28
• China as a Peaking Power - 31:14
• American Policy Toward China - 41:56

Key Links

Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China by Hal Brands and Michael Beckley

The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us about Great-Power Rivalry Today by Hal Brands

"China’s Threat to Global Democracy" in Journal of Democracy by Hal Brands and Michael Beckley

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Josh Chin on China’s Surveillance State

Elizabeth Economy in a Wide Ranging Conversation About China

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My book is in some ways trying to help us see not only the kind of deep intermingling of pre-modern and modern ideas of sovereignty, but how we repeat some of those more fantastical attributes of sovereignty that we might otherwise presume to be long gone remnants of a more superstitious or religious age.

Natasha Wheatley

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Natasha Wheatley is an assistant professor of history at Princeton University. She is the author of The Life and Death of States: Central Europe and the Transformation of Modern Sovereignty.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:40
• The State as Modern and Pre-Modern - 2:52
• The Habsbug Empire - 9:21
• Collapse of an Empire - 24:09
• The State and International Law - 40:55

Key Links

The Life and Death of States: Central Europe and the Transformation of Modern Sovereignty by Natasha Wheatley

Learn More About Natasha Wheatley

Follow Natasha Wheatley on Twitter @natasha_wheatl

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Anna Grzymala-Busse on the Sacred Foundations of Modern Politics

Tom Ginsburg Shares his Thoughts on Democracy and International Law

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I think that the most important reform is openness. Once the country is open, really open to the rest of the world, the rest follows.

Sebastian Edwards

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Sebastian Edwards is the Henry Ford II Professor of International Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was the former Chief Economist for Latin America at the World Bank where from 1993 until 1996. His most recent book is The Chile Project: The Story of the Chicago Boys and the Downfall of Neoliberalism.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:46
• Pinochet and the Origin of the Chicago Boys - 3:17
• Neoliberalism Under Democracy - 22:35
• Personal Background of Sebastian Edwards - 30:18
• Future of Chile - 38:35

Key Links

The Chile Project: The Story of the Chicago Boys and the Downfall of Neoliberalism by Sebastian Edwards

Learn More About Sebastian Edwards

Watch the film Chicago Boys by Carola Fuentes and Rafael Valdeavellano

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Jennifer Piscopo on the Constitutional Chaos in Chile

Aldo Madariaga on Neoliberalism, Democratic Deficits, and Chile

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Democracy is Eastern as well as Western.

Dan Slater

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Dan Slater is the James Orin Murfin Professor of Political Science, the Ronald and Eileen Weiser Professor of Emerging Democracies, and director of the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies at the University of Michigan. His most recent book (coauthored with Joseph Wong) is From Development to Democracy: The Transformations of Modern Asia. More recently he wrote the article "Thailand's Revolutionary Election" at the Journal of Democracy.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:41
• An Inspiring Election - 2:38
• Parties and Politics - 5:09
• Forming a Government - 21:09
• Risks and Hope - 35:53

Key Links

"Thailand's Revolutionary Election" by Dan Slater at Journal of Democracy

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

"What Indonesian Democracy Can Teach the World" by Dan Slater in the Journal of Democracy

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Dan Slater on Indonesia

Roger Lee Huang on Myanmar

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Apes of the State created all Music

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