Real Democracy Now! a podcast

Albert Dzur and Carolyn Hendriks' book Democracy in Action: Collective Problem Solving in Citizens' Governance Spaces considers a range of citizen initiatives that solve complex problems directly rather than through advocacy and policy change. In this episode, you'll learn how grassroots citizen initiatives are shaping modern democracy, often operating independently of traditional political and in...

In this episode, Helen Sullivan discusses her book 'Collaboration and Public in the Pursuit of Public Purpose'. She emphasises the importance of collaboration in public policy, the role of agency, & the need for public participation. We also touch on emotions in public service, the challenges of sustaining collaboration beyond individual actors, and the impact of context on collaborative efforts....

In this bonus episode, I talk with Anouch Toranian , the Deputy Mayor of Paris, Yves Dejaeghere , the Executive Director of the Federation for Innovation in Democracy, Europe and Claudia Chwalisz , leader of i nnovation in citizen engagement with the OECD about the design and establishment of the Paris Citizens' Assembly. The Paris Citizens' Assembly was established in 2021 with 100 Parisians repr...

In episode eight of season three of the podcast, I'm speaking with Therese Arseneau about the introduction of a mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system. Therese was an expert advisor to the New Zealand Electoral Commission between 2010 and 2016. She is currently an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Therese sets out the background to the...

In this episode, I'm talking with Antony Green about the Australian electoral system and Vote Compass, a tool which allows voters to explore how their views align with the major parties. Antony is an Australian psephologist and commentator. He is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's election analyst. As well as being an Adjunct Professor University of Sydney in the School of Social and Politi...

In this episode, I'm talking with  Dr Camille Bedock  about her book Reforming Democracy: Institutional engineering in Western Europe, 1990 - 2010 and also about her more recent research with Sophie Panel on citizen conceptions of how democratic their democracy is and with Nicolas Sauger on how electoral systems with majority bonuses affect electoral competition.   Camille's book is based on her t...

In this episode, I am speaking with Professor Pippa Norris about her work on electoral integrity.    Pippa Norris , is the Paul F. McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the  John F. Kennedy School of Government , Harvard University, ARC Laureate Fellow and Professor of Government and International Relations at the  University of Sydney , and Director of the  Electoral Integrity Project .   P...

  Welcome to Episode 10 in this special bonus series of Real Democracy Now! a podcast about Deliberation, Culture and Context.   This bonus series has been made in collaboration with the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. In this series, I've spoken with most of the presenters at the Centre's conference on Deliberation, Culture and Context, which...

This is the ninth episode in a bonus series of Real Democracy Now! a podcast talking about Deliberation, Culture and Context.     This bonus series has been made in collaboration with the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. In this series, I speak with a number of people who participated in the Centre's conference in early December 2017 which brou...

Welcome to Episode 8 in this special bonus series of Real Democracy Now! a podcast about Deliberation, Culture and Context.   This bonus series has been made in collaboration with the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. In this series, I speak with a number of people who participated in the Centre's conference in early December 2017 which brought...

This bonus series has been made in collaboration with the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra here in Australia. In this series I speak with a number of people who participated in the Centre's recent conference which brought together scholars from around the world to examine the different forms, meanings, and significance associated with deliberati...

Welcome to Episode 6 in this special bonus series of Real Democracy Now! a podcast about Deliberation, Culture and Context.   This bonus series has been made in collaboration with the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. In this bonus series I speak with a number of people who participated in the Centre's conference in early December 2017 which bro...

  Welcome to Episode 5 in this special bonus series of Real Democracy Now! a podcast about Deliberation, Culture and Context.   This bonus series has been made in collaboration with the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. In this series I speak with a number of people who participated in the Centre's conference in early December 2017 which brought...

Welcome to Episode 4 in this special bonus series of Real Democracy Now! a podcast about Deliberation, Culture and Context.   This bonus series has been made in collaboration with the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. In this series, I speak with a number of people who participated in the Centre's conference in early December 2017 which brought...

  Welcome to Episode 3 in this special bonus series of Real Democracy Now! a podcast about Deliberation, Culture and Context.   This bonus series has been made in collaboration with the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra here in Australia. In this series I speak with a number of people who participated in the Centre's recent conference which broug...

This is episode 2 in this special bonus series of Real Democracy Now! a podcast about Deliberation, Culture and Context.   This bonus series has been made in collaboration with the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra here in Australia.   In this series I speak with a number of people who participated in the Centre's recent conference which brought...

This is a the first episode in a bonus series of Real Democracy Now! a podcast talking about Deliberation, Culture and Context.   This bonus series has been made in collaboration with the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra here in Australia.   In this series I speak with a number of people who participated in the Centre's recent conference which b...

Welcome to episode four of season three of Real Democracy Now! a podcast. This episode is also the 43rd episode of the podcast and the first one since the first birthday of the podcast last week. To help celebrate the podcast's birthday I'd appreciate it if you could share either your favourite episode of the podcast or the podcast generally with someone you think would find it interesting.    Tod...

Welcome to episode 3 in Season 3 of Real Democracy Now! a podcast. Season 3 is about elections, electoral systems, electoral reform and alternatives. In this episode I'm speaking with Professor John Gastil . John is a Professor in the Communication Arts and Sciences and Political Science at the Pennsylvania State University as well as a Senior Scholar in the McCourtney Institute for Democracy. He...

Welcome to episode 2 of Season 3 of Real Democracy Now! a podcast. Season 3 is looking at elections, electoral systems, electoral reform and alternatives.   In today's episode, I'm talking with Professor Arend Lijphart about his work identifying two main categories of democracies which relate in part to their electoral systems.    Arend is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Universit...

Thank you for joining me in episode 1 of Season 3 of Real Democracy Now! a podcast. Season 3 of the podcast is looking at Elections, electoral systems, electoral reform and alternatives. As you can imagine this is a huge area to cover and I would like to thank Anika Gauja from the University of Sydney who helped me develop a broad structure for this Season.    I'm going to start looking at a few a...

Welcome to episode 18 in Season 2 of Real Democracy Now! a podcast. This episode is part 4 of the series where my guests share their views in response to the question: If you could change one thing about our system of democracy what would it be? And it is also the last episode in Season 2 about representative democracy. I'll be taking a break to put together Season 3 looking at Elections, voting a...

Welcome to episode 17 in Season 2 of Real Democracy Now! a podcast. Today I'm talking with Dr Simon Longstaff the Executive Director of The Ethics Centre , based in Sydney, Australia.   Simon began his working life on Groote Eylandt (Anindilyakwa) in the Northern Territory where he worked in the Safety Department of the then BHP subsidiary, GEMCO. He is proud of his kinship ties with members of th...

Welcome to episode 16 in Season 2 of Real Democracy Now! a podcast. In this episode, I talk to a few of my previous guests about the relationship between representative democracy and capitalism. Some common themes emerge, specifically around the power of capital challenging the power of democratically elected governments and the problem of growing inequality and the erosion of the welfare state an...

Thank you for joining me in episode 15 in Season 2 of Real Democracy Now! a podcast.   I ask all of my guests two questions:  what for them is the essence of a real democracy? and  if they could change one thing about our system of democracy what would it be? This episode is the third episode where I've put together a range of my guests' answers to the question:   If you could change one thing abo...