By Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr. and David Bernell In 1776, in its Declaration of Independence, the United States of America announced the formation of a new nation that would be based on the principle that all people are created equal and have certain basic rights, among them “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and... Continue Reading →
Sebnem Gumuscu is an associate professor of political science at Middlebury College and the author of Democracy or Authoritarianism: Islamist Governments in Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia. Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. If these Islamist organizations want to stay in these contexts and keep playing the democratic game, they... Continue Reading →
By Laura Gamboa Why Politicians and Parties Matter Politicians and political parties are among the most despised in the Americas. According to LAPOP, Latin American mean trust for political parties is the lowest for any institution (including the military and the police). Meanwhile, “politician” is used as a shorthand for corrupt, spineless, and sold-out. This... Continue Reading →
By Justin Kempf Are You Even on the Ballot? In 1994 the Libertarian Secretary of State Candidate, Steve Dillon, won 2.17% of the vote. It was a watershed moment for the Libertarian Party in Indiana. Most states make it difficult for minor political parties to even appear on a ballot in an election. Indiana's laws... Continue Reading →
Become a Patron! Mainstream Political Parties are in Hard Place Throughout the series on democracy in hard places, institutional weakness became a recurring theme. Unfortunately, established democracies have seen their own institutions gradually weaken or decay in recent years. Nowhere is this more evident than the state of political parties. Voters punish mainstream political parties... Continue Reading →
Become a Patron! Party System Institutionalization (PSI) This week's podcast throws around quite a bit of political science jargon. One of the terms we discuss is party system institutionalization (PSI). It's a bit confusing because it refers to the health of the party system rather than any individual political party. The United States is a... Continue Reading →
Become a Patron! Party System Institutionalization and Democracy Political parties do not exist independently. They operate as a system or a network. Scott Mainwaring developed a term he calls party system institutionalization (PSI). A party system with high degrees of institutionalization encourages long-term party formation. On the other hand, weakly institutionalized party systems discourage the... Continue Reading →
Amory Gethin is a PhD candidate at the Paris School of Economics and a research fellow at the world Inequality Lab. He is a coeditor (along with Clara Martinez-Toledano and Thomas Piketty) of Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities: A Study of 50 Democracies, 1948-2020. Indeed, the moderation of left-wing party’s economic policy proposals in the... Continue Reading →
Thomas Piketty is best known for the publication of Capital in the Twenty-First Century. It changed how the intellectual community thought about the problem of inequality. Despite the fact it may not have changed many opinions, it is one of the most influential books on economics in the past quarter century. It provided a language... Continue Reading →
Mexico: An Overview Tomorrow’s podcast features a conversation with Guillermo Trejo and Sandra Ley about the politics of criminal violence in Mexico. Their research transcends Mexican politics to provide insights about democratization and criminal governance. But it helps to have a basic overview of Mexico’s political system. This is not an outline designed for serious... Continue Reading →
