Democracy Paradox

If you have grown up in a household which had decent quality of life and now you are struggling, you cannot even match the degree of wellbeing that your parents achieved, this is very obvious and makes people feel completely dissatisfied with the system that we have now.

Peter Turchin

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

Peter is a complexity scientist who has established a new field of social science research called cliodynamics. He is the author of the book End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration,

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:45
• The Crisis - 3:05
• Elites - 11:54
• Popular Immiseration - 30:59
• Cliodynamics - 43:40

Key Links

End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration by Peter Turchin

Cliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution

Learn more about Peter Turchin

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Martin Wolf on the Crisis of Democratic Capitalism

Francis Fukuyama Responds to Liberalism’s Discontents

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Democracy Group

Apes of the State created all Music

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It's very hard to understand what's happening today without looking at the roots of all these divisions and at the interests of the different communities and their long-held resentments against the establishment of the country.

Isabel Kershner

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Isabel Kershner is a reporter at The New York Times and the author of a new book called The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel's Battle for Its Inner Soul.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:37
• Mizrahi and Askenazi - 5:31
• Immigration - 18:08
• Ultra-Orthodox - 28:12
• Netanyahu's Judiciary Proposal - 39:27

Key Links

The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel's Battle for Its Inner Soul by Isabel Kershner

Read more from Isabel Kershner at The New York Times

Follow Isabel Kershner on Twitter @IKershner

Democracy Paradox Podcast

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

Yascha Mounk on the Great Experiment of Diverse Democracies

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Democracy Group

Apes of the State created all Music

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The Jihadis today root themselves theologically and ideologically in a particular movement that is exclusivist, that is militant, that is activist, and that is the movement known as Wahhābism.

Cole Bunzel

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Cole Bunzel is a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the editor of the blog Jihadica. He is the author of the book Wahhābism: The History of a Militant Islamic Movement.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:33
• Relevance and Overview - 2:43
• Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab - 14:15
• Appeal to Adherents - 26:14
• Legacy - 36:16

Key Links

Wahhābism: The History of a Militant Islamic Movement by Cole Bunzel

Read the Jihadica Blog

Learn more about Cole Bunzel

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Marsin Alshamary on Iraq’s Struggle for Democracy

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

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Democracy Group

Apes of the State created all Music

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100 Books on Democracy

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If you have this model of AI, which is geniuses design machines and those machines or algorithms are going to scoop up all the data and they're going to make better decisions for you. That's fundamentally anti-democratic.

Daron Acemoglu

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

Daron Acemoglu is the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT. He is coauthor (with James A. Robinson) of The Narrow Corridor, Why Nations Fail, and The Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. His latest book (with Simon Johnson) is Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:33
• Technology and Progress - 2:06
• Productivity - 14:01
• Artificial Intelligence - 24:42
• Shared Prosperity - 34:31

Key Links

Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson

Learn more about Daron Acemoglu

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Jamie Susskind Explains How to Use Republican Ideals to Govern Technology

Samuel Woolley on Bots, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Propaganda

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Democracy Group

Apes of the State created all Music

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The fact that Ukraine can be a democracy.... presents a threat to the authoritarian regimes in Moscow and Minsk of the sort that NATO would never actually present.

Serhii Plokhy

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Serhii Plokhy is a Professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University and the Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. He’s written many books including The Gates of Europe, Nuclear Folly, and Atoms to Ashes. His most recent book is The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:37
• Ukrainian Political Identity - 2:39
• Background on the War - 18:31
• Causes of the War - 26:22
• Nuclear Power in a War - 36:06

Key Links

The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History by Serhii Plokhy

Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters by Serhii Plokhy

Learn more about the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Olga Onuch and Henry Hale Describe the Zelensky Effect

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

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Democracy Group

Apes of the State created all Music

Email the show at [email protected]

Follow on Twitter @DemParadox, Facebook, Instagram @democracyparadoxpodcast

100 Books on Democracy

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Ronald Inglehart is well-known for his work linking cultural values to political development and democratization. He was instrumental to the creation of the World Values Survey. In addition, he also wrote many influential books including The Silent Revolution, Cultural Evolution, and Cultural Backlash (cowritten with Pippa Norris).

Christian Welzel was among Inglehart's closest collaborators. He cowrote multiple books and articles with him. This conversation explores Inglehart's ideas about cultural values as well as the development of the World Values Survey. It also offers a personal window into the origins of the collaboration between Inglehart and Welzel. 

This is a bonus episode available only for premium subscribers or supports at Patreon. It is the fourth part of a series on the great thinkers of democratic thought through conversations with contemporary scholars.

Subscriber-only episode

Subscribe for just $5/month. Click here to unlock this episode.

Paid Apple Subscribers to Democracy Paradox should have automatic access.

Donors at Patreon can access episodes here.

Juan Linz is a giant among democratic theorists. His ideas continue to shape how we think about political regimes and institutions. Some of the most well-known subjects in his work include democratic breakdowns, democratic consolidation, and the perils of presidentialism. This episode explores his ideas and what they mean for how we think about politics and democracy today.

Scott Mainwaring is a past guest on the podcast. He is the Eugene and Helen Conley Professor of Political Science at Notre Dame and a fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

This is a bonus episode available only for premium subscribers or supports at Patreon. It is part of a series on the great thinkers of democratic thought through conversations with contemporary scholars.

Email any questions or comments to [email protected]

Subscriber-only episode

Subscribe for just $5/month. Click here to unlock this episode.

Paid Apple Subscribers to Democracy Paradox should have automatic access.

Donors at Patreon can access episodes here.

Robert Dahl is among the most influential political theorists of democratic thought. He wrote many seminal books including Polyarchy, Who Governs, and On Democracy. This conversation discusses many of Dahl as a theorist and as a person. Many of his ideas are put into the context of his time and explain why they remain relevant for today.

Jeffrey Isaac was the last PhD student Robert Dahl supervised. He knew him personally and has studied his work closely. He is the James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington. Many know him for the time he served as Editor in Chief of Perspectives on Politics from 2009-2017.

This conversation will leave out much about Robert Dahl. It's not meant to explore every nuance or idea. Instead, it brings those ideas to life through someone who knew him well.

This is the first part in a series of bonus episodes that introduce important democratic theorists through people who have studied them closely and when possible knew them well. It's available for supporters of the podcast on Patreon or premium subscribers.

Email any questions or comments to [email protected]

Subscriber-only episode

Subscribe for just $5/month. Click here to unlock this episode.

Paid Apple Subscribers to Democracy Paradox should have automatic access.

Donors at Patreon can access episodes here.

Guillermo O'Donnell marked a change in democratic thought. His focus on Latin America gave him a different perspective. He combined Western political traditions with the experiences of those in Latin America. The result was a degree of creativity few possessed in the social sciences. He shaped ideas about political modernization, democratization, and democratic quality.

Gerardo Munck worked with Guillermo O'Donnell on a few projects, but has also closely studied his ideas. Munck is a highly influential political scientist in his own right who is a professor in the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California. He is also the coauthor of Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Political Science where he interviewed an earlier generation of political scientists including O'Donnell.

This is a bonus episode available only for premium subscribers or supports at Patreon. It is part of a series on the great thinkers of democratic thought through conversations with contemporary scholars.

Email any questions or comments to [email protected]

We are at a moment of very, very high risk and I'm not sure that people really know that or understand it, or if they do, if they care.

Anne Applebaum

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

Anne Applebaum is a staff writer at The Atlantic and a Pulitzer-prize winning historian. Some of her books include Gulag: A History, Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine, and most recently Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism. She recently gave the Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture titled "Autocracy, Inc."

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:42
• What is Autocracy, Inc - 3:47
• Democratic Response - 13:40
• Appeal of Authoritarianism - 26:51
• Thoughts on Poland - 32:26

Key Links

Watch Anne Applebaum's Lecture "Autocracy, Inc"

"The Autocrats are Winning" in The Atlantic by Anne Applebaum

Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Francis Fukuyama Responds to Liberalism’s Discontents

Larry Diamond on Supporting Democracy in the World and at Home

More Episodes from the Podcast

More Information

Democracy Group

Apes of the State created all Music

Email the show at [email protected]

Follow on Twitter @DemParadox, Facebook, Instagram @democracyparadoxpodcast

100 Books on Democracy

Support the show