It’s not that simple

What is «corruption»? What different kinds of corruption exist in our modern societies? How does corruption manifest itself in governments, corporations, the judicial system and every other sphere of our lives? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Donatella della Porta in this episode of «It’s Not That Simple», a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.

 An expert on corruption, Donatella della Porta is a professor of political science, dean of the Faculty  of Political and Social Sciences  and Director of the PhD program in Political Science and Sociology at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, where she also leads the Center on Social Movement Studies (Cosmos). 

Among the main topics of her research are social movements, political violence, terrorism, corruption, the police and protest policing. She has directed a major ERC project - Mobilizing for Democracy, on civil society participation in democratization processes in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. In 2011, she was the recipient of the Mattei Dogan Prize for distinguished achievements in the field of political sociology; in 2021, she received the Research Awards of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung in recognition of her lifetime’s research activities. 

She is an Honorary Doctor of the universities of Lausanne, Bucharest, Goteborg, Jyvaskyla and the University of Peloponnese. She is the author or editor of 90 books, 150 journal articles and 150 contributions in edited volumes.

In this episode, della Porta discusses what the term «corruption» means and what kinds of practices constitute an act of corruption. She also examines the resiliency of corruption in our societies, how it uses the corrupt political and judicial systems to avoid criminal prosecution and thus perpetuate itself in a vicious cycle. Della Porta also addresses the evolution of corruption throughout the world in the last few decades, namely how “democratic backsliding” has been at the root of the increasing levels of corruption in many countries. Finally, della Porta considers how to fight corruption, the role of whistleblowers and how to protect them, in a conversation well worth listening to. 

More on this topic 

• Lo Scambio Occulto: casi di corruzione politica in Italia, Donatella della Porta, 1992

• Democracy and Corruption in Europe, Donatella della Porta and Yves Mény, 1997

• Corrupt Exchanges: Actors, Resources, and Mechanisms of Political Corruption, Donnatella della Porta and Alberto Vannucci, 1999

• The Hidden Order of Corruption: An Institutional Approach, Donnatella della Porta and Alberto Vannucci, 2012

• Donatella della Porta on social capital and political corruption

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780691186849-013/pdf

• Donatella della Porta (with Alberto Vannucci) on the “perverse effects” of political corruption

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9248.00094?journalCode=psxa

Other references in Portuguese

• Essay of the Foundation “Corrupção” by Luís de Sousa

 https://www.ffms.pt/publicacoes/detalhe/15/corrupcao

• Essay of the Foundation “Jobs for the Boys”, by Patrícia Silva

https://www.ffms.pt/publicacoes/detalhe/4947/jobs-for-the-boys-as-nomeacoes-para-a-administracao-publica

• “45 Anos de Combate à Corrupção”, a study by Luis Rosa for the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation

https://www.ffms.pt/publicacoes/detalhe/5208/45-anos-de-combate-a-corrupcao

• An interview with Luís Rosa about his study “45 Anos de Combate à Corrupção”

https://www.ffms.pt/play/video/5299/e-possivel-combater-a-corrupcao

• Podcast Da Capa à Contracapa, “Como tem sido combatida a corrupção desde Abril de 1974?” with Luís Rosa and Maria José Morgado

https://www.ffms.pt/podcasts/da-capa-a-contracapa/5306/com

What is it like growing up in a country in civil war? What remains to be achieved in the struggle for women's rights? Will it be possible to heal the wounds opened by the wars of the present and the past? Is it possible to reach peace when the scars of war are still visible? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Leymah Roberta Gbowee in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. 

A Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2011, Gbowee is a Liberian Peace Activist, Trained Social Worker and Women’s Rights Advocate. She is the Founder and current President of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa (GPFA). She also currently serves as the Executive Director of the Women, Peace and Security Program at Columbia University’s Earth Institute in New York, USA. She is the Co-Founder and former Executive Director of the Women Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSEN-A) and a Founding Member and former Liberia Coordinator of Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET).  

In this episode, Gbowee discusses her experience growing up in civil war-torn Liberia, her time in a refugee camp in Ghana, and how he set up small donut and braid businesses to be able to get food and money. Gbowee also addresses the work she does with victims of war and for peace, the biggest obstacles to peace today and what needs to be done to overcome them. Finally, Gbowee also looks at the progresses made in the struggle for women's rights, and the obstacles women still face today in cultures that do not recognize their worth. 

More on this topic

 • Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War; a Memoir, Leymah Roberta Gbowee (com Carol Mithers), 2011 

• Leymah Roberta Gbowee’s Nobel Lecture, 2011 

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2011/gbowee/lecture/ 

• Documentary about Leymah Roberta Gbowee, 2008 

https://vimeo.com/188872289 

Other references in Portuguese

• Podcast [IN]Pertinente, “Vamos falar de Direitos Humanos?”, with Raquel Vaz Pinto and Pedro Vieira 

https://www.ffms.pt/podcasts/fundacao-ffms-in-pertinente/5970/politica-vamos-falar-de-direitos-humanos 

• Podcast [IN]Pertinente, “De quantas mulheres se faz a igualdade de género?”, with Raquel Vaz Pinto and Pedro Vieira 

https://www.ffms.pt/podcasts/fundacao-ffms-in-pertinente/5848/politica-de-quantas-mulheres-se-faz-a-igualdade-de-genero 

• Podcast Da Capa à Contracapa, “A situação desigual das mulheres em Portugal”, with Anália Torres and Sandra Ribeiro 

https://www.ffms.pt/podcasts/da-capa-a-contracapa/5399/a-situacao-desigual-das-mulheres-em-portugal 

• Conferência, “Apresentação do estudo «Igualdade de género ao longo da vida»”, by Anália Torres 

https://www.ffms.pt/conferencias/detalhe/2584/apresentacao-do-estudo-igualdade-de-genero-ao-longo-da-vida 

How disastrous was “Brexit”? How much did it affect the United Kingdom’s economy and its living standards? How has it changed the political relationship between the UK and the European Union? Could it ever be reversed? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews R. Daniel Kelemen in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. 

An expert on European Affairs, Kelemen is a Professor of Political Science and Law at Rutgers University, where he is the Chair of the Department of Political Science. Prior to Rutgers, Kelemen was Fellow in Politics at the Lincoln College, University of Oxford. He has been a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, visiting fellow in the Program in Law and Public Affairs (LAPA) at Princeton University, and a Fulbright Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. Kelemen is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and he is a frequent commentator on EU affairs in US and international media. 

In this episode, Kelemen discusses how the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have masked the negative impact of “Brexit”, the future of the relationship between the UK and Europe, and the role of the British government led by Boris Johnson. Kelemen also addresses the way in which the public’s attitude towards politics increasingly resembles a fan’s attitude towards the football team they root for, and the process of democratic backsliding and increasing authoritarianism in some European Union countries. Finally, Kelemen looks at the 2022 French presidential elections, at how Russia's invasion of Ukraine will unite Europe, and at Putin's efforts to divide it, in a conversation well worth listening to. 

More on this topic

 • Eurolegalism: The Transformation of Law and Regulation in the European Union, R. Daniel Kelemen, 2011 

• R. Daniel Kelemen on the causes, controversies and consequences of Brexit

• An article by R. Daniel Kelemen on authoritarianism in the EU

• R. Daniel Kelemen’ opinion pieces for Politico

Other references in Portuguese

• Podcast Da Capa à Contracapa, “Brexit e a Europa que temos”, with Ana Gomes and Miguel Poiares Maduro 

• Podcast Da Capa à Contracapa, “Eleições numa Europa cada vez mais fragmentada”, with Nuno Sampaio and Carlos Jalali 

How much impact did the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have on the global economy? How will technology change sectors like health or education? What is causing the slowdown in economic growth around the world? How worried should we be about inflation? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Michael Spence in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. 

A Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, Michael Spence is the Philip H. Knight Professor Emeritus of Management in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and a Distinguished Visiting Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is an Adjunct Professor at Bocconi University in Milan, and an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford University. Spence is a Senior Advisor to Jasper Ridge Partners and a Senior Advisor to General Atlantic Partners. He co-chairs (with Dr. Victor Fung) the Advisory Council of the Asia Global Institute and was the Chairman of The Independent Commission on Growth and Development (2006-2010). 

In this episode, Spence discusses how congestion in global supply chains contributed to rising inflation, and what central banks can do to try to keep it under control. He also examines the role of the United States and China in the global economy, and how they can increase productivity growth. Spence also addresses how the labour market has changed and will continue to change because of the Covid-19 pandemic and technology. Finally, Spence considers the impact “digital nomads” coming to live in Portugal while working remotely have on the local housing market, and how the country can balance the benefits of attracting dynamic foreign entrepreneurs with the ability to ensure that the local population isn’t “priced out” of its own cities. 

More on this topic 

• The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World, Michael Spence, 2011 

• Michael Spence’s Nobel Prize Lecture, 2001 

• Michael Spence (with James Manyika) on the post-Covid-19 global economy 

• Michael Spence’s op-ed pieces on Project Syndicate 

• “Globalization and Technology”, a debate hosted by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation 

Other references in Portuguese

• “O Mercado Imobiliário em Portugal”, a study by Paulo M. M. Rordrigues for the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation 

• “Um novo normal? Impactos e lições de dois anos de pandemia em Portugal”, a study by Nuno Monteiro and Carlos Jalali for the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation 

• Podcast Da Capa à Contracapa, “A digitalização da vida” with José Tribolet and João Mota Lopes 

What is social mobility? How can we measure it? How can we promote it? Is the “American Dream” still alive? How did the Covid-19 pandemic impact social mobility around the world? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews John Friedman in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. 

An expert on social mobility, John Friedman is a Professor of Economics at Brown University, as well as a founding co-Director of Opportunity Insights.  He studies the causes and consequences of inequality for kids, as well as policies to improve opportunity for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. His work has appeared in top academic journals as well as in major media outlets, has been cited by President Obama in his 2012 State of the Union Address, and has shaped policies at the federal, state, and local level.  Most recently, John and his colleagues at Opportunity Insights have published the Economic Tracker, providing the most granular and real-time look at how COVID-19 is affecting the economy in cities and states across America.  He worked as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the National Economic Council in the White House. He is also a Research Associate at NBER and a Co-Editor of American Economic Review. 

In this episode, Friedman discusses the importance of a person’s childhood and young adulthood in shaping their adult life and how high a step in the social ladder they will be able to reach, as well as how much education – and high-quality teachers – matter to a person’s social mobility. Friedman also addresses how society limits people’s opportunities depending on the circumstances into which they were born, and how women still face more obstacles to their social mobility than men. Finally, Friedman looks at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine on social mobility in different parts of the world, in a conversation well worth listening to. 

More on this topic

• The Economic Tracker created by John Friedman and the Opportunity Insights team 

• John Friedman on the issues identified by the Economic Tracker

• An interview with John Friedman 

• John Friedman on improving intergenerational mobility

Other references in Portuguese

• “Mobilidade Social em Portugal”, a study by Teresa Bago d’Uva and Marli Fernandes for the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation 

• Podcast Da Capa à Contracapa, “O elevador social em Portugal está estragado?” with Amílcar Moreira and Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues. 

Has the Covid-19 pandemic changed the world's balance of economic power? How important were political leaders in responding to the crisis born out of the pandemic? Has the latter led to a proliferation of propaganda and disinformation? How serious is the threat of Covid-19 when compared to other problems facing humanity, such as global warming or other public health crises? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Adam Tooze in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. 

A renowned historian, commentator and author, Adam Tooze is a Professor at Columbia University in New York, where he is Director of the European Institute. In the past, he has taught at Cambridge and Yale Universities, as well as at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Tooze teaches and researches widely in the fields of twentieth century and contemporary history with a special focus on the history of economics and a range of themes in political, intellectual, and military history, across a canvas stretching from Europe to the Atlantic. His books have won awards in several countries, and his articles have been published in newspapers or magazines such as the Financial Times, New York Times, The Guardian, Sunday Telegraph, Observer, Prospect Magazine, Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books, Wall Street Journal, New York Review of Books, Die Zeit or Spiegel. 

In this episode, Tooze discusses the initial reaction of financial markets to the Covid-19 pandemic, the way in which the three major poles of the world economy (United States, the European Union and China) suffered an “extraordinary shock” with the pandemic, and how structural factors and luck were the decisive elements in each society’s response to the crisis. Tooze also addresses the challenge of global warming, the role that countries such as China, Brazil, India, or Indonesia may play in responding to this challenge, and what kind of measures will have to be adopted for this response to be successful. Finally, Tooze also looks at issues such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine (and the West’s and China’s responses), or how citizens and governments regard statistics, facts, and truth. 

More on this topic

• Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World's Economy, Adam Tooze, 2021 • Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World, Adam Tooze, 2018 

• The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy, Adam Tooze, 2006 

• A profile of Adam Tooze, 2022 

• Conference “Debt and risk sharing in the EU in times of pandemic”, held by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, 2020 

• “How is democracy doing?”, Timothy Snyder interviewed by Pedro Pinto 

Other references in Portuguese

• Podcast Da Capa à Contracapa, “Que China sairá da pandemia?”, with António Caeiro and Marcos Caramuru de Paiva 

• Podcast Da Capa à Contracapa, “EUA ou China? Com a pandemia chegou o 'momento da escolha' para Portugal”, with Carlos Gaspar and Miguel Monjardino 

• Podcast Da Capa à Contracapa, “Como responder aos desafios das alterações climáticas?”

What challenges and threats do European democracies face today? How actually democratic are they? What is an illiberal democracy? Will democracy in Europe resist the stress-test of the Covid-19 pandemic? Was “Brexit” a vaccine against Euroscepticism? To answer this questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Catherine de Vries in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple” a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. 

A political scientist and an expert on European politics, Catherine de Vries is a Dean of Diversity & Inclusion and Professor of Political Science at Bocconi University, and has published several books on the economic, political, and social reality of the European Union. A columnist of Het Financieele Dagblad (the “Dutch Financial Times”), de Vries is also a member of European Integration Committee of the Dutch Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs, and in 2013, she was selected a Young Global Leader in the World Economic Forum for her societal impact. 

 In this episode, de Vries discusses the impasse the European Union has found itself in since the Treaty of Lisbon, the opportunities the current crisis might present to the EU, the impact national elections such as the April 2022 French elections might have on the EU’s future, or the challenges of the energy transition, in a conversation worth listening to. 

More on this topic

• Euroscepticism and the Future of European Integration, Catherine de Vries, 2018 

• On Euroscepticism and the future of European integration, Catherine de Vries, 2017 

• Catherine de Vries and historian Timothy Garton Ash on the challenges faced by European leaders 

• On why it is so hard to reach a consensus within European institutions

• Conference on “What Democracy?” of the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, 2016  

• On the “illiberal democracies” of Hungary and Poland, by historian Anne Applebaum 

Other references in Portuguese

• Essays of the Foundation:

“A democracia na Europa”, by Catherine Moury; 

“Qualidade da democracia em Portugal” by Conceição Pequito Teixeira; 

“Instituições e qualidade da democracia: cultura política na Europa do Sul”, a study coordinated by Tiago Fernandes. 

• [IN] Pertinente podcast, “Estará a democracia ameaçada?”, with Raquel Vaz-Pinto and Pedro Vieira 

What does Vladimir Putin want? What makes him so dangerous? How can he be fought? What role could countries like China play in solving the crisis of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Are we on the brink of nuclear war? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Mark Galeotti in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. 

A renowned author, speaker and professor at University College London, Mark Galeotti is an expert on Russian politics and Vladimir Putin, having authored several books on these topics. With a degree in History from Robinson College in Cambridge, Galeotti directs the consultancy firm Mayak Intelligence, and has been a professor at Rutgers University in Newark, at New York University, at Charles University in Prague and at MGIMO in Moscow and has worked for the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office. 

In this episode, Galeotti discusses Vladimir Putin's political career, how he is more like a judoka than a chess master, and the impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union on today’s Russia and on its leader. Galeotti also analyses the role propaganda, disinformation, and control of the media play in Putin’s grip on power, the nature of the Russian regime and Putin's relationship with its "oligarchs". Finally, Galeotti also considers the actions of the Russian armed forces in the war in Ukraine, the reasons for the difficulties they have faced, the possible impact of Western sanctions against Russia, plausible scenarios for an end to the war, and Russia's growing external isolation, in a conversation worth listening to. 

More on this topic

• The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia, Mark Galeotti, 2018 

• Russian Political War, Mark Galeotti, 2019 

• We Need To Talk About Putin, Mark Galeotti, 2019 

• The Weaponisation of Everything, Mark Galeotti, 2002 

• In Moscow’s Shadows, Mark Galeotti’s podcast 

• Mark Galeotti on the Russian invasion of Ukraine  

• Videocast [IN] Pertinente “Where does the greatest threat to the West lie? In Moscow or Beijing?” François Heisbourg 

Other references in Portuguese

• Essay of the Foundation, “Rússia e Europa: uma parte do todo”, by José Milhazes

• Podcast Da Capa à Contracapa, “Que Rússia é esta e como chegámos até aqui?”, with Carlos Gaspar and Sandra Fernandes

• Podcast [IN] Pertinente, “É possível compreender a Rússia”, with Raquel Vaz-Pinto and Pedro Vieira  

Is it possible to predict the future? What is “data journalism”? Have polls become increasingly unreliable? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Nate Silver in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. 

A statistician famous for correctly predicting the results of the 2008 US presidential election in 49 of the 50 states of the Union, Nate Silver is the founder of the website FiveThirtyEight.com, which uses “data journalism” to cover areas such as politics, science, health, and sports. Silver started out as a baseball statistical analyst (having written several books on the topic), before turning to politics and polls. In 2012, he published the book The Signal and The Noise: The Art and Science of Prediction, and has written for publications such as The New York Times, ESPN, Sports Illustrated and Slate. In 2009, he was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People. 

In this episode, Silver explains how his election prediction model works, as well as what probabilistic thinking is and the difference between correctly predicting who wins an election and reliably calibrating the probability that a given candidate will win. Silver also discusses the value and usefulness of polls, as well as their limitations. Finally, Silver analyses the complexity of the American electoral system and the obstacles that this (and the relatively low frequency in which elections take place) poses to the accuracy of electoral forecasts, in a conversation well worth listening to. 

More on this topic

• The Signal and The Noise: The Art and Science of Prediction, Nate Silver, 2012 

• New York Magazine article on Nate Silver, 2008 

• Newsweek article on Nate Silver, 2008 

• Article about Nate Silver in The Atlantic, 2020 

• Conference “How Far Can We See the Future?”, with Philip E. Tetlock at the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation 

Other references in Portuguese

• Essay of the Foundation “Sondagens, Eleições e Opinião Pública”, by Pedro Magalhães