Can democracies fall? What does it look like when they start to slide? What are the tipping points? These are some of the big questions I find myself asking as I look at a wave of unsettling changes in government around the world – and wonder whether it has happened here in the past or will happen here in the future. What are the key ingredients in democracy – indeed, what exactly is democracy, anyway? And what are the threats to those ingredients? When we see democratic systems weaken, how and why does it happen? And is it happening here? What differentiates this kind of “democratic backsliding” from ordinary democratic regime change?

To try to find out the answers to those questions. I’m here with two of my colleagues at the University of Chicago – Sue Stokes, the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor in political science, and Aziz Huq, the Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law here in the law school. Sue is the director of the Chicago Center on Democracy, the President-elect of the American Political Science Association, and the author of six books on democratic theory and democratic erosion. The latest one, which is about to come out is The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracy. Aziz is the author of books and articles across a huge range of subjects, including How to Save  Constitutional Democracy (coauthored with Tom Ginsburg) and The Rule of Law: A Very Short Introduction.

I’ve brought them here to help me understand what democracy is, what it isn’t, and what can happen to it – not just here but around the world.

Have a listen.