Spectacles In Conversation

Last year, we thought California had killed single-family zoning. But this Bay Area enclave would rather have mountain lions than new homes.

Read, listen to, or comment on this article here!

Correction: Woodside has dropped this claim to a wildlife habitat to prevent SB9, though I would still predict other communities making other legal attempts to exempt themselves, and legal battles will probably follow.

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Harry's previous Insight on SB9 and 10

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Today, we're joined by a very special guest who's with us to discuss healthcare policy, democracy reform, the filibuster, campaign finance, and her dream policy for her home state of Wisconsin. Tune in for our conversation.

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• "Why did Trump end the WTO's Appellate Body? Tariffs.," by Chad P. Brown, for Peterson Institute for International Economics.
• "What Are the Trends in Armed Conflicts, and What Do They Mean for U.S. Defense Policy?" by Thomas S. Szayna et. al., for RAND.
• "The Unipolar Moment," by Charles Krauthammer in Foreign Affairs.
• Harry's Insight explaining the impact of domestic politics on US foreign policy
• Philip's Focus on China's admission to the WTO

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• "Anarchy Is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics," by Alexander Wendt, in International Organization.
• "The False Promise of International Institutions," by John Mearsheimer, in Interntational Security.
• "International Institutions: Two Approaches," by Robert Keohane, in International Studies Quarterly.
• The Focus article Philip definitely wrote the day before Mearsheimer said the same thing

Join Harry and Philip as they begin a discussion of international institutions and how they contribute (or fail to contribute) to global peace.

What are institutions? How do they emerge at the international level? What do international institutions promise?

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• "Institutions," by Douglass North in Journal of Economic Perspectives.
• "Judicialization and the Construction of Governance," by Alec Stone-Sweet in Comparative Political Studies.

Join Harry and Philip as they wade into a current debate about the global competition between autocracy and democracy. Is this really happening? Is it a decisive feature of democratic decline? Or are our problems mostly domestically rooted?

We will be looking at three articles on the subject from Anne Applebaum in Atlantic Magazine, Max Fisher in The New York Times, and Damon Linker in The Week, all linked below.

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• "The Bad Guys Are Winning," by Anne Applebaum in Atlantic Magazine.
• "U.S. Allies Drive Much of World’s Democratic Decline, Data Shows," by Max Fisher in The New York Times.
• "The outdated thinking confusing our talk about autocracy," by Damon Linker in The Week.
• Harry's Focus on the supposed democracy/autocracy struggle
• Harry's Insights on Tunisia
• Harry's Insight breaking down the war in Yemen
• Philip's Insight explaining the coup in Sudan
• Bird's Eye episode on Salazar
• Philip's Focus on China and the globalization of autocracy

Harry and Philip discuss today's Insight, "Beyond Gerrymandering" to dive deeper into an explanation of what's wrong with America's single-member district system. On the other hand, it turns out there are some benefits.

-Important References-

Our chat with Benjamin Singer of Show Me Integrity, about approval voting

The recent Bird's Eye about Hungary's democratic backsliding

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Join Harry and Philip as they discuss today's Insight, "A Different Perspective on Inflation" and talk over the role of the media in this situation, how poll-chasing is bankrupt, and much more.

-Important References-

Harry's recent article on popularism and poll-chasing

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Join the Harry and Philip as they wrap up their discussion of democratic backsliding. Today, we're on the home turf—the United States. We discuss executive aggrandizement, how Congress let this happen, and what it will mean in the future.

-Important References-

The Bird's Eye episode on partisan sorting and voting systems

Harry's Insight on the lack of military accountability

Philip's Insight explaining how DACA worked

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• "On Democratic Backsliding," by Nancy Bermeo in Journal of Democracy.
• Congress: The Electoral Connection, by David Mayhew.

Harry and Philip discuss today's Insight, "Ortega’s Propaganda Peddlers," and talk about Nicaragua's example of how modern election-rigging works.

-Important References-

The recent Bird's Eye episode discussing Hungary's example of similar behavior

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