RevDem Podcast

Ancient Greece and Rome are often celebrated as the foundations of Western civilization, democracy, and political thought. But what happens when these revered historical traditions are mobilized to legitimize exclusionary and authoritarian politics? In this episode of the Review of Democracy podcast, we speak with Curtis Dozier, author of The White Pedestal – How White Nationalists Use Ancient Gre...

In our latest episode of the special series produced in partnership with the Journal of Democracy , we discuss the recent article by Ghia Nodia, entitled “ Georgia: Between Democracy and Autocracy ” (Journal of Democracy, Vol. 37, No.2, April 2026) Over the last couple of years, Georgia has frequently been in foreign news due to two related issues. Firstly, in 2024, the current Georgian government...

Are interethnic marriages bridges or fault lines in post-conflict societies? What happens when the politics of national identity enter the intimacy of home? Who were the main agents to oppose or promote mixed marriages in East-CentralEurope? Was it the Church? Was it the legal framework? Were it depending on local culture? Was it determined by class? In our podcast in two parts, we discuss this to...

In the new episode of our series produced in collaboration with the  Journal of Democracy , Ferenc Laczó speaks with James Loxton about his article , “Why We Elect Former Dictators and Their Children.” James Loxton discusses prominent cases of former dictators or the children of former dictators being elected democratically as president or prime minister; how suchleaders deal with their authoritar...

How did the First World War reshape the way we think about politics, economics, empire, and democracy? In this episode of the Review of Democracy podcast, we speak with Duncan Kelly, Professor of Politics at the University of Cambridge, about his book Worlds of Wartime: The First World War and the Reconstruction of Modern Politics , published by Oxford University Press. Kelly’s book explores the F...

Since assuming office at the beginning of 2025, Donald Trump’s administration has targeted numerous people in the U.S. Those who have suffered the most and are the most vulnerable to the administration’s policies are the ones Trump and his compatriots believe are unworthy of living their lives on U.S. soil in peace, especially so-called “illegal immigrants.” The Immigration and Customs Enforcement...

This interview with historian Professor Xu Guoqi explores the major themes of his latest book The Idea of China ata moment marked by the weakening of the international order and the global resurgence of nationalism. We begin by tracing the changing meanings of “China” and “Chineseness.” The conversation then moves to thinking about Chineseuniversalism, its alignments and tensions with Western libe...

Are interethnic marriages bridges or fault lines in post-conflict societies? What happens when the politics of national identity enter the intimacy of home? Who were the main agents to oppose or promote mixed marriages in East-CentralEurope? Was it the Church? Was it the legal framework? Were it depending on local culture? Was it determined by class? In our podcast in two parts, we discuss this to...

In our latest episode of the special series producedin partnership with the Journal of Democracy , we discuss therecent article by Susan Stokes, entitled “ Why Elected Leaders Subvert Democracy ” (Journal of Democracy, Vol. 37, No.2,April 2026). Democracy today faces many paradoxes. According to recent reports, democracy has regressed to the level of 1978, and the successes of the third wave of de...

How can a democracy emerge from authoritarian rule when those who hold power fear what comes next? In this episode of the Review of Democracy podcast, Gabriel Pereira speaks with José Ramón Morales-Arilla about the challenges of democratic transition in Venezuela. Drawing on economic theory and comparative experiences, Morales-Arilla argues that the key obstacle is not simply political disagreemen...

Of the many political ideologies that exist, perhaps oneof the most paradoxical ones is nationalism. It has been associated with various political currents. At the end of the eighteenth and during the nineteenth century, people who wanted to overcome monarchy were often staunchnationalists. In the first half of the twentieth century, nationalism is said to have been a root cause for the two world...

In the new episode of our series produced in partnership with the Journal of Democracy , Ferenc Laczó speaks with L. Jason Anastasopoulos and Jie (Jason) Lian about their article , “The Limits of Authoritarian AI.” They discuss the new challenges and opportunities for repression that AI poses; the dilemmas autocrats face when employing such tools; what a maximalist agenda forpro-democracy activist...

In our new podcast, Diána Vonnák discussesthe recent past and present state of relations between Hungary and Ukraine. Focusing on questions of scholarship, culture and media, the conversation explores howprevalent Hungarian perspectives on Ukraine may be characterized and contextualized; how ties between Hungarians and Ukrainians have been transformed since 2022; and how this highly sensitive – an...

In this special podcast episode with Pepper Culpepper, we discuss the latest article entitled, When Populism Can be Good , jointly written by Pepper Culpepper and Taeku Lee. This discussion reframes populism as a differentiated and politically consequential phenomenon rather than a uniformlyanti-democratic force. It distinguishes between populism rooted in political failure , which often turns exc...

According to the Rule of Law Index, prepared yearly by the World Justice Project, in 2025, 68% of countries worldwide experienced a decline in the rule of law, a bleak contrastto 57% the previous year. In what feels like a permanent rule of law crisis, revisiting the origins of the concept offers much-needed distance and room for reflection. This discussion with Fernanda Pirie focuses on the histo...

Today, the afterlife of communism is equally about monuments and half-ironic memes, retro aesthetics, movie series and board games. Far from being confined to archivesor secondary sources, references to socialist period survive throughout everyday cultural forms and reveal a way of processing histories that were never fully resolved. In our conversation with Anna Váradi and Lucy Jeffery, built aro...

Politicians have usually neglected the needs and concerns of young voters, since they were seen as the most inactive and unreliable segment of the electorate. However, the interlocking crises of the contemporary global landscape have awakened Gen-Z’s political consciousness and have made them realize that their voice should also be heard. But have politicians adapted to this new reality and are th...

In this episode of our podcast series produced in collaboration with the Journal of Democracy , Ferenc Laczó speaks with Andrés Mejía Acosta and Javier Pérez Sandoval about their new article, “ Why Populists Hollow Out Their States .” They discuss how, why, and when elected leaders seek to undermine the state; what libertarians and leftists share when it comes to practices of state erosion and whe...

In this conversation, Julian E. Zelizer – editor of the new volume The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden. A First Historical Assessment – discusses the key accomplishments of Joe Biden’s presidency as well as the sources of his ultimate failure to fulfil his promise. He explores the historical origins of the Biden presidency, reflects on its foreign policy record, and considers the questions future hi...

Artificial intelligence or the pandemics were two recent crises framed as almost magical non-human actors. They both reshaped the boundaries of human agency. By now,the language explaining them is often one of rupture and unprecedented transformation. AI or COVID-19 were described as opaque, autonomous and difficult to control. Yet the fear of the non-human as a destabilising force is not new. Wha...

In this episode of the Review of Democracy podcast, Gabriel Pereira speaks with Gabriela Lotta about Democracy on a Tightrope: Politics and Bureaucracy in Brazil ,co-authored with Pedro Abramovay and recently published by Central European University Press . Drawing on the Brazilian case, the conversation explores the risks that emerge when the relationship between politics and bureaucracy breaks d...

What happens when democracy faces violence as a recurring feature of political life? In this episode, we discuss the DANGER – Democracy, Anger, and Elite Response European Research Council (ERC) project with PrincipalInvestigator, Nils-Christian Bormann. This EU-funded research project examines how European democracies responded to political violence, economic crisis, and rising extremism in the i...

In many democracies today, elected leaders challenge institutions, undermine electoral rules, and test the limits of constitutional order. Yet legal accountability for suchactions remains rare. In this episode of the Review of Democracy podcast, produced in cooperation with the Journal of Democracy, Gabriel Pereira speaks with Luciano Da Ros and Manoel Gehrke about their article “How toBring Autho...

In this latest conversation, we speak with Minxin Peiabout his latest book, The Broken China Dream: How Reform Revived Totalitarianism (Princeton University Press, 2025) ,which challenges the enduring assumption that economic development naturally leads to democracy. Pei argues that China’s post-Mao reforms produced not political liberalization but a resilient, adaptive form of authoritarianism. F...

Artificial intelligence or the pandemics were two recentcrises framed as almost  magical non-human actors. They both reshaped the boundaries of human agency. By now,the language explaining them is often one of rupture and unprecedented transformation. AI or COVID-19 were described as opaque, autonomous and difficult to control. Both were imagined as operating beyond ordinaryaccountability, while s...