Lisa Disch is a professor of political science at the University of Michigan and an elected member of the Ann Arbor City Council. She is the author of the book Making Constituencies: Representation as Mobilization in Mass Democracy. Become a Patron! The tension in what we want from democratic representation is that we... Continue Reading →
Become a Patron! Representation and Democracy Perhaps the most widely cited book on democracy is Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition by Robert Dahl. Despite its widespread influence in the literature on democracy, very few writers refer to polyarchy. Instead, it’s become replaced with the more common term liberal democracy. Of course, I’m aware some find a... Continue Reading →
Zeynep Pamuk is an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego and the author of the book Politics and Expertise: How to Use Science in a Democratic Society. Science is never offering the whole truth. It may be offering us something accurate. Scientific findings may be reliable for... Continue Reading →
Science in a Democracy In the classic work Democracy and its Critics, Robert Dahl said Plato made the most compelling case against democracy. Most of us recall Plato imagined a republic where a philosopher king ruled over an orderly utopia. For most of us it’s difficult to take seriously the idea of a philosopher king... Continue Reading →
Stephan Haggard and Robert Kaufman join the podcast to discuss their new book, Backsliding: Democratic Regress in the Contemporary World. Stephan is the Lawrence and Sallye Krause Distinguished Professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. Robert Kaufman is a distinguished professor of political science at Rutgers... Continue Reading →
Democratic Backsliding I don’t like to write about American politics. Anything I say becomes interpreted through the lens of partisanship rather than as political theory. At the same time, it’s become difficult to discuss the global decline of democracy without mentioning the United States. Of course, it does help to limit the discussion to specific... Continue Reading →
Tom Ginsburg is a professor of international law and political science at the University of Chicago. He is the coauthor of How to Save a Constitutional Democracy with Aziz Huq and the author of Democracies and International Law. At the end of the day, I am optimistic despite all the evidence. First of all, I think... Continue Reading →
International Law and Democracies International is a riddle for the political theorist. It exists despite the absence of any formal state or government. So, not only is there no international body to enforce its edicts, but it lacks any formal institution to promulgate its laws. It bypasses the notion of sovereignty traditional democratic theory depended... Continue Reading →
Neoliberalism as a Political Philosophy Neoliberalism is more than a school of economics. It incorporates a broad political philosophy surrounding its ideas about economics. The neoliberal package of reforms is often presented as a toolkit for economic development, but its earliest theorists associated free markets and capitalism with human freedom and liberty. They saw themselves... Continue Reading →
Potemkin Villages Catherine the Great had many lovers. Grigory Orlov led the coup d’état that brought Catherine to power. Stanisław Poniatowski became the last King of Poland. Prince Zubov, the last of her lovers, was forty years younger than her. Some of them played a part in the governance of Russia, while others merely amused... Continue Reading →
