Episode Four of The Depolarizers podcast features Didi Kuo, a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. She oversees the program on American democracy and comparative perspective, which seeks to bridge academic and Policy Research on American democracy. She's the author of The Great Retreat: How Political Parties Should Behave and Why They Don’t and Clientelism, Capitalism, and Democracy: The Rise of Programmatic Politics in the United States and Britain.

Kuo argues that political parties play a central role in the democratic process: the problem is polarization, not partisanship. Additionally, she makes that case that both parties have been weakened by candidate-centered politics. She argues that parties should be civic vehicles that prioritize the needs of individuals and help them transcend narrow interests.