RevDem Podcast

Why the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty was a significant moment for the EU? Who are the right-wing populists in the EU and how has their modus operandi changed throughout the decades? Why did the national leaders engage in the EU politics? In this conversation with RevDem editor Kasia Krzyżanowska, Dermot Hodson talks about his most recent book Circle of Stars. A History of the EU and the P...

In this RevDem podcast episode for the Democracy and Culture section, RevDem assistant editor Karen Culver speaks with Clement Akpang about his research into European museums and how their displays can mitigate or exacerbate perceptions of social inequalities in post-colonial settings. 

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Maximilian Hess – author of the new book Economic War: Ukraine and the Global Conflict between Russia and the West – shows how an economic war between Russia and the West has broken out in the 2010s; discusses why Russia’s large-scale invasion and brutal attempt to wreck Ukraine in 2022 has caused such disruption on the global scale; reflects o...

In conversation with Flora Hevesi Ruzha Smilova explores Bulgaria's complex and ongoing political crisis, which has left a profound mark on the country's political landscape. The stalemate began in 2021, stemming from widespread public dissatisfaction with the government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and his center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party. The ens...

The monograph The Abuse of Constitutional Identity in the European Union (OUP, 2023) by Julian Scholtes (Lecturer in Public Law, University of Glasgow) was published in September. In this latest RevDem Rule of law podcast, Oliver discuss constitutional identity and its implications for the Rule of Law and democracy in Europe today.

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Yascha Mounk – author of the new book The Identity Trap. A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time – discusses how the identity synthesis has been created and gone mainstream; why he considers this synthesis dangerous and counterproductive; what he sees as key advantages of a liberal, more universalistic approach; and whether the ‘battle of ideas’...

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Melvin Rogers – author of the new book The Darkened Light of Faith. Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought – introduces the thinkers he has studied and explains why he chose to engage with their ideas; discusses the normative vision of African American thinkers and what makes that vision distinctive; clarifies his ow...

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Stefano Bottoni – author of the new Hungarian-language book A hatalom megszállottja. Orbán Viktor Magyarországa ( Obsessed with Power. Viktor Orbán’s Hungary ) – discusses how the current political system has been built up in Hungary and which theories might help us analyse this process; reflects on the Orbán regime’s sources of legitimacy and...

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Eva von Redecker – author of the new German-language book Bleibefreiheit (The Freedom to Stay) – shows what it means to think of freedom in terms of time rather than space; explains what implications it has that we are actually “born unfree but not alone”; reflects on the personal experiences and intellectual influences that inspired her; and s...

What is the link between the European counter-revolutionaries of the 17th and 18th centuries and today’s self-declared illiberals? Who were modern conservatives and what kind of ideas did they preach? How the idea of Christian Europe was understood at that time? In this conversation with RevDem editor, Kasia Krzyżanowska, Matthijs Lok answers these questions and more and discusses his newest book...

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Samuel Moyn – author of the new book Liberalism Against Itself. Cold War Intellectuals   and the Making of Our Times – discusses what motivated him to explore the Cold War liberal betrayal of previous liberal traditions; what their redefinition of the liberal canon and silences about crucial developments in their own lifetime may reveal about C...

In this conversation with assistant editor Lorena Drakula, Bodo Weber, a Senior Fellow at the Democratization Policy Council in Berlin, discusses the current situation, as well as the complex dynamics of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, unpacking its democratic implications, challenges, and opportunities.

In this latest RevDem Rule of Law podcast, assistant editor Teodora Miljojkovic discusses the different models of judicial independence in Spain and beyond with Dr. Pablo Castillo Ortiz .

In this conversation with RevDem contributor Una Blagojevi ć , Paul Stubbs, Chiara Bonfiglioli, and Agustín Cosovschi discuss the different meanings of the Non-Aligned Movement and the need to rethink the “West–East–Non-Aligned” trajectories; approach Yugoslav foreign policy critically and explain why they attach such importance to imaginaries; show the importance of developing a “perspective from...

In this episode, assistant editor Rohit Sarma discusses the “basic structure” doctrine of the Indian Constitution on the occasion of its 50th anniversary with Moiz Tundawala and Anuj Bhuwania, Professors of Constitutional Law at the Jindal Global Law School in India.

In this conversation co-hosted by Marta Haiduchok (Visible Ukraine) and Ferenc Laczó (the Review of Democracy), Serhii Plokhy – author of the new book The Russo-Ukrainian War – discusses why Ukraine was so crucial to the Soviet collapse and how Ukraine and Russia diverged subsequently; explains what made Ukraine a focal point of competition in the post-Cold War decades and which factors enabled th...

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Andrew Port – author of the new book Never Again. Germans and Genocide after the Holocaust – describes and compares the German responses to mass atrocities in Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda; explains which were the consensual and the most contested issues in German debates; discusses the “softer,” societal responses connected to German memory wor...

Despite, or perhaps due to, the war in Ukraine there have been positive developments in combating corruption and other issues in anticipation of EU membership. In this RevDem Rule of Law podcast Teodora Miljojkovic discusses these issues around transition with Professor Maria Popova.

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Ben Judah – author of the new book This is Europe. How We Live Now – discusses what motivated him to tell stories on a continental scale, which authors and books have inspired him the most, and what has been his approach to narrating. He also reflects on key themes have emerged from his extensive travels and reportage and on what he sees as the...

In recent weeks proposals by the Meijers Committee to suspend Hungary’s Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2024 have received support in a resolution of the European Parliament. In this RevDem Rule of Law podcast, Oliver Garner discusses these proposals in the wider context of the Rule of Law crisis with John Morijn and Alberto Alemanno.

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Ari Joskowicz – author of the new book Rain of Ash: Roma, Jews, and the Holocaust – discusses the ways Jewish and Romani histories have been entangled and what motivated him to write a relational history of the two groups; illuminates why he considers it essential to explore the conditions of knowledge production and how to try to avoid reprodu...

In this conversation with RevDem editor Kasia Krzyżanowska, Orlando Scarcello discusses his newest book Radical Constitutional Pluralism in Europe (Routledge 2022). He elaborates on the descriptive nature of the theory of constitutional pluralism, stresses the inevitability of constitutional conflicts in the EU, and ponders on the political side of these conflicts.

In conversation with RevDem assistant editor Lucie Hunter, Dr. Aliaksei Kazharski discusses his newest book Central Europe Thirty Years after the Fall of Communism: A Return to the Margin? (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022, 2022).

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Danielle Allen – author of the new book Justice by Means of Democracy – discusses her proposal of a power-sharing liberalism and explains why she calls herself a “eudaemonist democratic pragmatist”; shows why it is essential to foster a connected society and measure that society by the principle of “difference without domination”; reflects on w...

The war in Ukraine continues into its second year. In recent weeks President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has undertaken a European tour to drum up support ahead of a counter-offensive against Russia. In the background Ukraine continues as a candidate state subject to the Copenhagen criteria process. In this podcast, Oliver Garner speaks to Professor Roman Petrov on this subject of “accession through war”....