Spectacles In Conversation

Join Harry and Philip as they welcome their first guest to Bird's Eye! Benjamin Singer, the executive director of the Missouri-based voting reform organization Show Me Integrity, sits down with the editors. We discuss "approval runoff," an alternative electoral system that Show Me Integrity helped enact in St. Louis, the value of political parties, and the ultimate aims of voting reforms.

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00:00 - Intro & Housekeeping

00:32 - Recap & Today's Topic

01:28 - Welcoming Benjamin Singer

02:21 - What's the problem needs solving in our politics?

06:52 - How can reform address this?

12:49 - What is Approval voting? How does it work?

17:45 - Can we work with the two-party system?

23:06 - What is the value of parties generally?

25:28 - Is Approval voting the best, or merely practical?

28:10 - How manageable are the challenges to reform?

33:01 - Reform for moderation or for representation?

37:26 - How do these structures shape voters' and officials' behavior?

40:17 - Thanks to Benjamin Singer

41:13 - Signing off

Join Harry and Philip as they discuss today's Insight, "Tunisian Democracy Sheds the Burden of Reciprocity," to learn about how Tunisian leaders made the decisions they did and why.

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Visit our website and subscribe to our newsletter!

To read, comment on, or listen to the article we discussed, click here.

Read or listen to our previous coverage of Tunisia here and here.

Follow us on Twitter!

Join Harry and Philip as they discuss today's Insight, "As Shortages Abound, What Can We Do?", to learn some interesting things about supply chains, trucking, freight rail, global trade relations, flat screen TVs, debt peonage, and security dilemmas. It's a fun one.

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Visit our website and subscribe to our newsletter!

To read, comment on, or listen to the article we discussed, click here.

Follow us on Twitter!

Click here to learn more from Spectacles about the AUKUS deal we mentioned. It's a great article!

Join Harry and Philip to learn more about the two-party system and alternative multi-party political set-ups. We discuss what they each are, how they come about, advantages, disadvantages, and American lessons.

Next week, you don't want to miss our conversation with Benjamin Singer, Executive Director at Show Me Integrity, as we talk over possible avenues for improving America's two-party politics.

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• Patterns of Democracy, by Arend Lijphart
• “Electoral Systems: A Primer for Decision Makers,” by Donald L. Horowitz in Journal of Democracy.“
• Constitutional Choices for New Democracies,” by Arend Lijphart in Journal of Democracy.“
• Trudeau Wins, but Is Diminished by a Futile Election,” by Ian Austin and Dan Bilefsky in The New York Times.
• “Why America’s 2-party system is on a collision course with our constitutional democracy,” by Lee Drutman in Vox.

00:00 - Intro & Housekeeping

00:22 - Recap

01:46 - Today's topic

04:31 - Two-Party System: How it works and why it happens

11:26 - Multi-Party System: How it works and why it happens

15:07 - Two-Party: Problems

17:16 - Two-Party: American Problems

22:29 - Multi-Party: Solutions

25:37 - Multi-Party: Problems

29:31 - Two-Party: Solutions

31:43 - Which is superior?

34:55 - The takeaway + Next week's topic

36:10 - Signing Off

Join the editors as they begin an exploration of the political spectrum, the way citizens align themselves with political parties, and the nature of the two party system. Is a single-axis political spectrum the best way to conceptualize American politics? What are the effects of more disciplined political parties? How can we best understand what voters want if our major political parties are not delivering?

Next week we'll be diving into a deeper exploration of the two party system, so make sure to stay tuned!

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• Bird’s Eye – Small Government and Liberal Democracy.
• Bird’s Eye – Big Government and Liberal Democracy.
• Political Compass Test.
• “Politics Across Generations: Family Transmission Re-Examined,” by M. Kent Jennings, Laura Stoker, and Jake Bower, presented at the 1999 American Political Science Association Annual Meeting.
• “Quiz: If America Had Six Parties, Which Would You Belong To?” by Lee Drutman in the New York Times.
• “The Nature of Partisan Conflict in Public Opinion: Asymmetric or Symmetric?” by Maria Narayani Lasala Blanco, Robert Y. Shapiro, and Joy Wilke.

00:00 - Intro & Housekeeping

00:32 - What would you expect?

01:43 - Today's topic

02:37 - What is the political spectrum?

04:36 - What are the problems with it?

08:28 - The impact of party sorting and what that means

13:58 - Inadequacy of the spectrum; is a compass better?

18:43 - Movement of the Republican party post-90s

21:21 - Inadequacy of the political compass

23:12 - Asymmetric polarization, complexities

25:16 - Inadequacy of a two-party system

30:35 - Closing notes; the argument for two-party

32:41 - Next week's topic

33:25 - Signing off

Join Harry and Philip as they discuss today's Insight, "The Promises and Perils of Australia’s New Submarines." Is the buildup of tensions China or America's fault? Are we right to respond by arming our allies, and how do we pick those allies anyways?

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To read or comment on the Insight discussed in this episode, click here.

To listen to that same article in Spectacles Out Loud, click here.

Click here for that article about Afghanistan we mentioned.

Join Harry and Philip as they discuss today's Insight: Disastrous Developments in Haiti. The conversation ranges from a critique of media over-simplification of current events in the country to a consideration of the strategic value of democratic friendship rather than big-stick bullying.

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To read or comment on the Insight discussed in this episode, click here.

To listen to that same article in Spectacles Out Loud, click here.

Join Harry and Philip as they conclude their discussion of myth and politics, re-examining the relationship between belief and material reality, and evaluating the prospects for a global social narrative.

What is the relationship between material conditions and myth or belief in myth? Is a global myth or universal human social identity possible? What principal lesson can we learn about democracy from a discussion of political myths?

Next week we'll be covering a new topic, so stay tuned!

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• Imagined Communities, by Benedict Anderson.
• "Anarchy is what States Make of It," by Alexander Wendt.
• "Emmanuel Macron in his own words (English)," by The Economist.
• Readings from previous episodes in this series of Bird's Eye.

00:00:00 - Intro & Housekeeping

00:00:37 - Celebrities sing Imagine by John Lennon

00:01:51 - Why the hell would we ever play that?

00:02:59 - Today's topic

00:03:21 - Main Questions

00:00:33 - What is the relationship between myth and reality?

00:04:16 - Is a global, rather than national, myth possible?

00:04:42 - What is liberal democracy's greatest challenge regarding myth?

00:06:22 - Series Recap and Refresher

00:06:32 - Ep. 2: Myth & American Politics

00:08:04 - Ep. 3: QAnon & The Future of American Myth

— 00:12:09 - Post-truth politics

00:19:15 - Ep. 1: The Basics of Myth & Politics

00:20:04 - Global Myth

00:20:22 - The history of non-national myths

00:22:34 - The history of super-national myths: Christianity

00:24:14 - The history of the growing scale of myth: Germany

00:29:25 - Contemporary proofs for global myth: UN

00:31:29 - Contemporary proofs for global myth: EU

00:34:10 - The challenges of European myth-making

Join Harry and Philip as they discuss today's Insight on housing crises and legislation against single-family zoning, to learn more about interest groups and stakeholder theory in democracy.

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To read or comment on the Insight discussed in this episode, click here.

To listen to that same article in Spectacles Out Loud, click here.

Join the editors as they continue their discussion of the role of myth in political life, examining the "QAnon" conspiracy theory. What does Q tell us about myth and its role in politics? Is there precedent for conspiracy theories like Q in the American past? How is Q different from past conspiracy theories?

Next week, we will conclude our discussion of the role of myth in political life by discussing the possibility of a global myth, whether myths are ultimately natural or socially constructed, and what policies might make American myths more believable.

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• "Heeding Steve Bannon’s Call, Election Deniers Organize to Seize Control of the GOP — and Reshape America’s Elections," by Isaac Arnsdorf, Doug Bock Clark, Alexandra Berzon and Anjeanette Damon, for ProPublica.
• "Qanon Is More Important Than You Think," by Adrienne LaFrance in The Atlantic.
• "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," by Richard Hofstadter in Harper's Magazine.

00:00 - Introduction

00:32 - Q Excerpts

02:57 - Recap of Last Week

04:39 - Today's Topic

05:50 - What is Q, basically?

09:33 - Connection to Election Fraud Conspiracy

12:34 - Q As Myth, Religion

17:48 - Q As Reactionary Myth, Fantasy

21:26 - Q's Roots in American Covenantal Myth

23:53 - History of American Paranoia

31:15 - American Tension b/t Universality, Particularity

35:20 - The Power of The Internet

42:39 - The Balkanization of American Narratives

43:13 - Next Week's Topic

43:54 - Signing Off