Sheryl WuDunn describes intimate stories of inequality and poverty in her recent book Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope (coauthored with Nicholas Kristof). She is a pulitzer prize winning reporter and business executive. This is the 45th episode of the Democracy Paradox podcast. That's why all Americans should care. Because the cost of poverty is not just... Continue Reading →
The Politics of Violence
The Politics of Violence is an authoritarian impulse present in all forms of government including democracy. This is the fourth section on my description of democracy and part of a larger comprehensive work called The Democracy Paradox. Police as a Coercive Apparatus of the State The trial of Derek Chauvin and the murder of George Floyd... Continue Reading →
Mike Hoffman on How Religious Identities Influence Support for or Opposition to Democracy
Mike Hoffman shares his research on how religious identities shape support for and against efforts to democratize. He is a professor of political science at Notre Dame and the author of Faith in Numbers: Religion, Sectarianism, and Democracy. This is the 44th episode of the Democracy Paradox podcast. Doctrine is actually often a lot looser and... Continue Reading →
Principles of Process, Principles of Policy
The distinction between principles of process and principles of policy is key to an understanding of democratic governance and its theory. This marks the third section of an effort to offer a comprehensive theory of democracy called The Democracy Paradox. Eisenhower Conservatism Dwight Eisenhower is the model of the pragmatic conservative lost from the political environment... Continue Reading →
Shari Davis Elevates Participatory Budgeting
Shari Davis explains the efforts of the Participatory Budgeting Project. Shari is the Executive Director of PBP and an Obama Fellow. Participatory budgeting is actually about connecting folks with the skills and resources to navigate and shape government. And so, for me, that is the most optimistic and the most important outcome of any... Continue Reading →
Mouffe’s Democratic Paradox
The Democracy Paradox differentiates itself from the Democratic Paradox this week. Every week I write a new part as I work through the different components of democratic theory. This is the second part of the first chapter called "Democracy Defined." What is Mouffe's Democratic Paradox? The Democracy Paradox is not the Democratic Paradox. Many scholars... Continue Reading →
Chris Bickerton Defines Technopopulism
Chris Bickerton defines the concept of technopopulism. He is the author, alongside Carlo Invernizzi Accetti, of Technopopulism: The New Logic of Democratic Politics. That tension between the politics of the whole and the politics of the part, that tension between the politics of generality and the politics of particularity, is really at the heart of... Continue Reading →
What is the Democracy Paradox?
The Democracy Paradox is a wide ranging theory of democracy. Every week I write a new part as I work through the different components of democratic theory. This is the first part of the first chapter called "Democracy Defined." Brief Account of Venezuela Unlike many of the democracies in Latin America, Venezuela’s democracy extends back... Continue Reading →