Justin Kempf

Democracy Paradox

Is it possible for a democracy to govern undemocratically? Can the people elect an undemocratic leader? Is it possible for democracy to bring about authoritarianism? And if so, what does this say about democracy? ​​My name is Justin Kempf. Every week I talk to the brightest minds on subjects like international relations, political theory, and history to explore democracy from every conceivable angle. Topics like civil resistance, authoritarian successor parties, and the autocratic middle class challenge our ideas about democracy. Join me as we unravel new topics every week.

Author

Justin Kempf

Category

Government

Podcast website

www.democracyparadox.com

Latest episode

Jul 8, 2026

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Episodes

How Can Democracy Survive in an Age of Discontent? Rachel Navarre and Matthew Rhodes-Purdy on Populism and Political Extremism 28.11.2023

I think populism is rather a specific form of discontent. Discontent is the umbrella term. It's this vague sense that the way things are being done is not working. That democracy is not effective. That it's not serving my interests. Matthew Rhodes-Purdy Support the podcast on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com...

Rachel Schwartz on How Guatemala Rose Up Against Democratic Backsliding 21.11.2023

This was an election that was meant to cement authoritarian rule and it became a democratic breakthrough. Rachel Schwartz Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . Rachel Schwartz is an assistant professor of international and area studies at the University of Oklahoma. Recently, she cowrote an artic...

Who is Alexey Navalny? David Herszenhorn Paints a Picture 14.11.2023

It's impossible not to admire somebody who is willing to stand up for their country, for freedom and democracy, for the idea that Russians should be able to chart their own future and have a say in what their government looks like. David Herszenhorn Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . Davi...

Leadership is Not a Formula Says Moshik Temkin 07.11.2023

Leadership is not a formula. It's not something that happens in a vacuum. It's not just something that you can declare about yourself. Moshik Temkin Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . Moshik Temkin is a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Leadership and History at Schwarzman College,...

Patricia Evangelista Says The Philippines is an Example of What Happens When Autocrats and Dictators Rise and We Let Them 31.10.2023

For people like me or just your ordinary Joes who speak of democracy, I thought it meant freedom. I thought it meant a free press. I thought it meant that people would not die on the streets. Patricia Evangelista Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . Patricia Evangelista is a trauma journalist an...

Cenk Uygur is Running an Unorthodox Campaign for President 24.10.2023

You could take that populism and turn it negative, which often happens... But populism could also be a wonderful thing where you're actually appealing to what the voters want instead of what the powerful want. Cenk Uygur Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . Cenk Uygur is a host of the show...

Shadi Hamid on Democracy, Liberalism, and the Middle East 17.10.2023

Autocracy as we understand it today is a modern creation. I think there we see very few successful examples of modern autocracies that are able to sustain themselves. Shadi Hamid Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . Shadi Hamid is a columnist and member of the Editorial Board at The Washington P...

Branko Milanovic on Different Visions of Inequality 10.10.2023

Writing a book like that makes you really think brutally about the past. It makes you really think about the current time and also how the future would look at you. Branko Milanovic Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . Branko Milanovic is a Research Professor at the City University of New York a...

Yascha Mounk Warns Against a Misguided New Ideology 03.10.2023

I really do think that what we've witnessed over the last decades is the emergence of a new ideology that is meaningfully distinct... I think it really is meaningfully distinct from other forms of what is meant to be left wing in the past from other ideological traditions. Yascha Mounk Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is availab...

Heather Cox Richardson on History, Conservatism, and the Awakening of American Democracy 26.09.2023

It would be a lovely thing if before I die, I get to see a younger generation reclaim democracy and rebuild it in a new, more expansive way. Heather Cox Richardson Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . Heather Cox Richardson is a Professor of History at Boston College. Her daily newsletter Letter...

Daniel Ziblatt on American Democracy, the Republican Party, and the Tyranny of the Minority 19.09.2023

I think one of the greatest barriers to reform is thinking that reform is impossible. Daniel Ziblatt Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . Daniel Ziblatt is the Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and director of the Transformations of Democracy group at Berlin's Social Scien...

Is Reunification Still Possible? Victor Cha and Ramon Pacheco Pardo on Korea 12.09.2023

North Korea is stable up until the day it's not... The day that it collapses, there'll be a lot of people out there who will say this was inevitable. Victor Cha Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . Victor Cha is a professor of government at Georgetown University and holds the Korea Cha...

Deng Xiaoping is Not Who You Think He is. Joseph Torigian on Leadership Transitions in China and the Soviet Unio 05.09.2023

People still think of Chinese history as this two-line struggle because that's the story the Chinese tell. But everything from Mao Zedong's relationship to Liu Shaoqi to anything that happened during the 1980s, it was not a problem of competing policy platforms. It was a problem of getting the politics of your relationship with the top leader right when it was hard to guess what they wer...

Robert Kaplan on the Politics of the Past and Future of the Greater Middle East 29.08.2023

Great developments by nature are not linear. Things just don't always continue as they have been. That's why this idea that the Arab Spring came, it went, it happened, it didn't work, therefore the Middle East will always remain an autocracy - that's linear thinking. Great events are great precisely because they're not linear. Robert Kaplan Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon...

Is India Still a Democracy? Rahul Verma Emphatically Says Yes 22.08.2023

India should be understood as a test case of democracy outside the Western world. Rahul Verma Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . 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 Univer...

Cass Sunstein on Interpreting the US Constitution 15.08.2023

It would be a miracle if the original understanding of the Constitution just landed time and time again with the views in 2023 of the right-wing of the Republican Party. That would be too amazing a coincidence. That's more than troublesome. Cass Sunstein Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com ....

Marc Plattner Has Quite a Bit to Say About Democracy 08.08.2023

I think we have a more complex notion of what democracy is.  - Marc Plattner Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . 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 ....

Is McKinsey and Company a Threat to Democracy? Michael Forsythe Shares His Reporting 01.08.2023

It's too simplistic to call it an evil company. There are certainly a lot of very good people that work there. It's just the system itself and the corporation itself and the system that it's embedded in is what causes the problems. Michael Forsythe Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.c...

Sergei Guriev Revisits Spin Dictators 25.07.2023

Spin dictators have fewer political prisoners, fewer political killings. This is good. This is really good. On the other hand, we want to tell everybody that they are still dictators. Sergei Guriev Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . Sergei Guriev is a professor of Economics at Sciences Po in P...

Berk Esen and Sebnem Gumuscu on the Disappointing Elections in Turkey... or How Democratic (or Autocratic) is Turkey Really? 18.07.2023

Elections are not free or fair, but they matter greatly because this is how Erdoğan comes to power and stays in power and in this case he was almost about to lose that power. Sebnem Gumuscu Support Democracy Paradox on Podurama. Listen here . Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . Berk Esen is an...

Hal Brands Thinks China is a Declining Power... Here's Why that's a Problem 11.07.2023

The most dangerous states in the international system aren't necessarily revisionist powers that think that their trajectory points continually upward. It's those countries that have been growing, rising for a long time, and then fear that they are peaking and are about to decline. Those are the countries that are inclined to take the biggest risks to try to improve their position in the...

Natasha Wheatley Raises Some Really Difficult Questions About Sovereignty 04.07.2023

My book is in some ways trying to help us see not only the kind of deep intermingling of pre-modern and modern ideas of sovereignty, but how we repeat some of those more fantastical attributes of sovereignty that we might otherwise presume to be long gone remnants of a more superstitious or religious age. Natasha Wheatley Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Parad...

Sebastian Edwards on the History of Neoliberalism in Chile 27.06.2023

I think that the most important reform is openness. Once the country is open, really open to the rest of the world, the rest follows. Sebastian Edwards Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . Sebastian Edwards is the Henry Ford II Professor of International Economics at the University of California...

Dan Slater on Thailand's Revolutionary Election 20.06.2023

Democracy is Eastern as well as Western. Dan Slater Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com . Dan Slater is the James Orin Murfin Professor of Political Science, the Ronald and Eileen Weiser Professor of Emerging Democracies, and director of the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies at the Universit...

Peter Turchin Wants to Avoid Political Disintegration 13.06.2023

If you have grown up in a household which had decent quality of life and now you are struggling, you cannot even match the degree of wellbeing that your parents achieved, this is very obvious and makes people feel completely dissatisfied with the system that we have now. Peter Turchin Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. A full transcript is available at...

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