Samuel Woolley is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and the project director for propaganda research at the Center for Media Engagement. His most recent book is Manufacturing Consensus: Understanding Propaganda in the Era of Automation and Anonymity. Become a Patron! Make a one-time Donation to... Continue Reading →
By Justin Kempf Is the Podcast Boom Over? This week NPR announced it would cancel four podcasts. They included Invisibilia, Rough Translation, Louder than a Riot, and Everyone and their Mom. This is the latest in a round of layoffs that have affected the larger podcast industry. Indeed, many already believe the podcast boom is over. Last month The New... Continue Reading →
By Justin Kempf NATO Expansion was a Response to Russian Aggression At the end of the Cold War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization consisted of 16 member states. Over the past thirty years it has grown to 30. After Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden applied for membership. Their inclusion will double NATO... Continue Reading →
By Justin Kempf A Famine in Somalia I am well aware the United Nations describes the catastrophe in Somalia as a drought rather than a famine. While the semantics might have legal implications, they do not bring much comfort to the families who suffer immeasurable loss. Last year alone 43,000 people died from hunger in... Continue Reading →
Josh Chin is the Deputy Bureau Chief for China at the Wall Street Journal and the coauthor with Liza Lin of the book Surveillance State: Inside China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control. Become a Patron! Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. It's hard to believe what was happening... Continue Reading →
By Camilo González The Breakdown of the State and Democracy Haiti is going through an accelerated collapse of the state, but also of its democracy. The Haitian State is one of the most fragile states in the world. Its Human Development Index has worsened for two consecutive years. Constantly besieged by climate disasters -the last... Continue Reading →
By Christopher Blair An Emerging Trend International borders are hardening around the world. Since 2001, more than 60 new borders have been fortified. Walls and fences are the most prominent manifestation of this trend. As of 2020, nearly 40% of all countries had walled their international borders to some extent. Media and scholarly attention have... Continue Reading →
By Justin Kempf Democracy Regressed Back to 1986? The recent report from the Varieties of Democracy made a stir with some of its headline findings. Perhaps the most controversial is their finding that global democracy has regressed back to the same level as 1986 for the average citizen. It raised many eyebrows, because this sets... Continue Reading →
By Kevin Frazier The Politics of the Judiciary What question should voters answer when evaluating whether to retain a justice on their state’s court of last resort? Some voters may ask whether the justice’s individual decisions align with their own policy preferences. Other voters—in fact, likely a majority of voters—will simply ask whether the justice... Continue Reading →
Staffan Lindberg is the Director of the V-Dem Institute, one of the five principal investigators of the Varieties of Democracy Project, and a Professor of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg. He is also a coeditor of the book Why Democracies Develop and Decline along with Michael Coppedge, Amanda B. Edgell, and Carl Henrik Knutsen. ... Continue Reading →
