By Logan M. Williams Nationalism as a Bulwark Against the Populist Threat to Democracy The latest Latinobarómetro – an annual survey designed to measure the attitudes towards democracy across Latin America (alternatively, Ibero-America) – has been released, and it contains harrowing data, which confirms the greatest fears of democracy advocates around the world: Latin America... Continue Reading →
Daniel Ziblatt on American Democracy, the Republican Party, and the Tyranny of the Minority
Daniel Ziblatt is the Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and director of the Transformations of Democracy group at Berlin's Social Science Center. He is the coauthor with Steven Levitsky of How Democracies Die and a new book The Tyranny of the Minority and the author of Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy. Access... Continue Reading →
Erdogan is Trapped Between Business and Voters: The Political Economy of Migration
By Mehmet Yaşar Altundağ and Abdullah Esin Amid the turmoil in Turkish politics triggered by viral videos on social media that show how Afghan-Pakistani immigrants easily pass the Turkish borders, President Erdogan gave a very clear speech on May 9th 2022: “We will protect these brothers who have fled war to the end... They may... Continue Reading →
Is Reunification Still Possible? Victor Cha and Ramon Pacheco Pardo on Korea
Victor Cha is a professor of government at Georgetown University and holds the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is a former director for Asian Affairs at the White House National Security Council. Ramon Pacheco Pardo is a professor of international relations at King’s College London and... Continue Reading →
Why the US Military Values a PhD in Political Science
By Lieutenant Colonel Nerea M. Cal In the summer of 2021, reports of the chaotic and rushed withdrawal from Afghanistan dominated the news, with harrowing images of Afghans – desperate to escape what would surely be oppressive rule by a Taliban government – clinging to the landing gear of U.S. Air Force cargo aircraft as... Continue Reading →
Deng Xiaoping is Not Who You Think He is. Joseph Torigian on Leadership Transitions in China and the Soviet Union
Joseph Torigian is a Research Fellow at the Stanford Hoover History Lab. Previously he was an assistant professor at the School of International Service at American University in Washington and a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center. He is the author of Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union and China... Continue Reading →
Robert Kaplan on the Politics of the Past and Future of the Greater Middle East
Robert reported on foreign policy for The Atlantic for three decades and is currently the Robert Strausz-Hupé Chair in Geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. His most recent book is The Loom of Time: Between Empire and Anarchy, from the Mediterranean to China. Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to... Continue Reading →
Is India Still a Democracy? Rahul Verma Emphatically Says Yes
Rahul Verma is a fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. He is also Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, Ashoka University. Recently, he wrote “The Exaggerated Death of Indian Democracy” in the recent Journal of Democracy. Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox.... Continue Reading →
Cass Sunstein on Interpreting the US Constitution
Cass Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School. During Obama’s first term he was the Administrator for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He is the author of dozens of books including Nudge (with Richard Thaler) and The World According to Star Wars. His most recent book is How to... Continue Reading →
Marc Plattner Has Quite a Bit to Say About Democracy
Marc Plattner is the founding coeditor of the Journal of Democracy and the founding codirector of the National Endowment for Democracy’s International Forum for Democratic Studies. Until 2016, he also served as NED’s vice president for research and studies, and from 1984 to 1989 he was NED’s director of program. He is the author of Democracy Without Borders?... Continue Reading →