Democracy in Question?

Citizens have a crucial role to play in political life and can have tremendous power, as they come together in associations and social movements. To close this first season, Professor  Mary Kaldor (London School of Economics) lends us her experience as both an academic and an activist in the peace and human rights movements to discuss what role civil society plays in keeping democracy alive and he...

Prior to the Covid 19 pandemic, the issue on everyone’s minds was climate change. Scientists have been raising the alarm for the good part of three decades, but politicians the world over have been slow to react, even as more citizens have been calling for radical action. In this episode, we're joined by Michael Ignatieff (Central European University) to find out whether liberal democracy is up fo...

Capitalism has come under attack in recent years, notably because of growing economic inequalities not only between the global North and South, but also within Western countries. Some critics even cast doubt on its legitimacy and ability to create and preserve a just and equitable society. In this episode, the economist  Branko Milanovic helps us understand how economic inequalities systematically...

Since the introduction of neoliberal policies under Thatcher and Reagan many countries worldwide have implemented austerity politics that dismantled social security programs by cutting public funding. Our guest today, the renowned British economist,  Lord Skidelsky has argued that liberal democracy rests on a welfare state, so that austerity politics and the rise of populism in the West are interl...

Joe Biden was declared the next president of the United States over a month ago now, but Donald Trump has not yet conceded his defeat. Claiming voter fraud, he has launched legal battles to try to undo the results of the election, to no avail. What mechanisms, institutions and narratives has he used? And to what long term effects? In this episode, we’re joined by Professor  Timothy Snyder (Yale Un...

A new kind of elected leader has emerged across the globe: one who rules with a large parliamentary majority and with a claim to democratic legitimacy, but who uses power to hollow out democracy from the inside. So is such ‘soft authoritarianism’ a new face of electoral democracy? Professor  John Keane (University of Sydney) helps us dissect this pervasive pattern of new despotisms and their strat...

We have recently seen millions of people taking to the streets to protest social, political and environmental injustices. Even a global pandemic couldn’t stop protesters across the world from showing their support to the Black Lives Matter movement. In this episode, we’re joined by Professor  Nancy Fraser (The New School) and ask: can liberal democracy provide the distributive justice citizens see...

As the results of the 2020 US election are trickling in, we are taking a look at how laws - and notably electoral laws - can be used to undermine constitutional systems from within. Our guest Professor Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton University) helps us understand how a new kind of elected leader is using their democratic mandates to take the whole system apart, how they are getting away with it an...

The world is more formally democratic than ever before, if measured by the number of countries that have a representative form of government. But how viable is the Western model of liberal democracy as it travels to, and is transplanted in, different countries around the world? In this episode Professor Laurence Whitehead (Oxford University) and Dr. Yanina Welp (Albert Hirschman Centre on Democrac...

America is split into apparently irreconcilable political tribes and led by a highly divisive President who is upending democratic norms. The country is also being shaken by demonstrations against racial injustice and a severe economic downturn wrought by the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. Is American democracy having a momentary crisis or is it facing an existential threat? Professor  Ti...

Liberal democracies are under unprecedented strain from within and without. Join renowned social anthropologist Shalini Randeria and leading scholars for an exploration of the challenges democracies are facing around the world. Subscribe now! Find out more about our work on Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy and on IWM . If you have any questions or feedback, you can email us at communication@gr...