RevDem Podcast

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy , Benedek Jávor – Head of the Representation of Budapest to the European Union – discusses his current role and the evolving relationship between the European Union, the city of Budapest, and the Hungarian government; reflects on the green transition and critiques Hungary’s current energy policies; and pleads for talking responsibility locally.

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy , Nathalie Tocci – Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali and part-time professor at the School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute – discusses the direction the EU has taken in recent years in the light of its global strategy and how far it has managed to become strategically autonomous; reflects on what principled pra...

In our latest podcast, Mikuláš Dzurinda – President of the Wilfried Martens Centre and former Prime Minister of Slovakia – discusses the changes that EU membership has brought to Slovakia; reflects on the recent rightward shift in Europe and how this might influence the EPP's priorities; analyzes potential change in Slovak foreign policy and the relationship with Hungary; and argues for Ukraine’s...

In this conversation, Bernadett Sebály discusses the inception and development of the online database of protest events in Hungary, 1989–2010, entitled Küzdelmeink története , or “The Story of Our Struggles”; its use in pedagogical settings for students, activists, teachers, and everyday citizens; and the importance of its place between activism and scholarly research in the Hungarian illiberal co...

In this new conversation at the Review of Democracy , Adam Kirsch – author of the new book On Settler Colonialism. Ideology, Violence, and Justice – discusses the ideology of settler colonialism and how it leads idealists into morally disastrous territory; reflects on whether the application of this ideology to the State of Israel should be viewed as continuing the long, highly problematic traditi...

In this conversation, Marietje Schaake – author of the new book The Tech Coup. How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley – discusses how tech companies have been eroding democracy and what makes their growing power into a systemic problem; compares the policies of democratic and authoritarian regimes; identifies issues where regulation would be urgently needed on the global level; and spells out c...

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy , Marius Turda – author of the new book În Căutarea Românului Perfect. Specific național, degenerare rasială și selecție socială în România modernă (In Search of the Perfect Romanian. National Specificity, Racial Degeneration, and Social Selection in Modern Romania) – discusses the intersection between eugenics and racism in Romanian nation-building;...

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy , Nusrat Sabina Chowdhury – author of the recent book Paradoxes of the Popular: Crowd Politics in Bangladesh (Stanford UP, 2019) – discusses the various layers of democracy in Bangladesh. Analysing the differences between the English word “crowd” and the Bengali term “jonata,” Professor Chowdhury deliberates upon the recent events in Bangladesh throu...

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy , George Paul Meiu clarifies his concept of ethno-erotic economy and the commodification of ethnic sexuality; reflects on the role of objects in shaping political representations; discusses belonging and citizenship as well as mobility, memory, and materiality – and shares his insights concerning possible interpretations of the Greek God Dionysus epi...

In this conversation, Anikó Imre and James Mark – co-editors, with Catherine Baker and Bogdan Iacob, of the new volume Off White. Central and Eastern Europe and the Global History of Race – present the ambiguities of East Europeans’ whiteness and the major implications such ambiguities have had; analyze how the “two halves of Europe” compare when it comes to questions of white supremacy; explicate...

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy , András Bozóki – author of the new collection Töréspontok. Tanulmányok az autokrácia kialakulásáról (Breaking Points. Studies on the Formation of Autocracy) – reflects on what has made the anti-democratic turn in Hungary so effective and discusses what has surprised him the most about the evolution of the Orbán regime; comments on the regime’s attem...

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy , Julia Sonnevend – author of the new book Charm. How Magnetic Personalities Shape Global Politics – analyzes the main techniques politicians use to appear charming; compares the uses of such techniques by liberal and illiberal political leaders; discusses how gendered the perception of charm has remained; and considers whether politicians are likely...

Çağlar Öztürk: My first question concerns populism. Populism has become a fashionable term in recent years which has led to quite some confusion even among political scientists and political science students. First of all, what qualifies a politician or party as populist? How do they differ from others, from non-populist ones? What was your motivation in choosing populism as a key concept and what...

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy , eminent psephologist and political analyst Sanjay Kumar discusses the recently concluded elections in India. Kumar weighs in on some of the unique features of the Indian elections in 2024, the emerging patterns of change, and what the election verdicts mean for democracy and politics in the Global South.   Sanjay Kumar is currently a Professor at t...

In this conversation, Pat Cox reflects on the new term of the European Parliament and the importance of the rise of the Right in the Union and its member states. He also discusses his work in Ukraine after 2012 – when he led a mission to free political prisoners imprisoned by President Viktor Yanukovych – as well as in more recent years when he has co-directed the Jean Monnet Dialogues which aim t...

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy , Zack Beauchamp – author of the new book The Reactionary Spirit. How America’s Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World – discusses the specific kind of antidemocratic politics that emerges in countries with democratic institutions; shows how the United States might to said to have invented competitive authoritarianism; explains the conclu...

In this podcast, Silvia Márton, principal investigator within the ERC Project “Transnational Histories of ‘Corruption’ in Central-South-East Europe,” discusses the multiple understandings of the concept “corruption” in the context of Central-South-East Europe; the relevance of this debate in understanding the process of modernization between 1750 and 1850; factors that led politicians, scholars, t...

This latest RevDem Rule of Law podcast discusses the doctoral research of Dr. Maciej Krogel following the defence of his thesis “The intellectual sources of the European Union’s response to the rule of law crisis in the Member States”. Maciej is a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and he completed a re:constitution fellowship in 2022/23. Oliver Garner: Your Ph. D. traces the intellectual sou...

In this conversation, Gergő Medve-Bálint – co-editor, with András Bíró-Nagy of the new volume Húsz év az Európai Unióban. Magyarország uniós tagságának közpolitikai mérlege (Twenty Years in the European Union. A Balance Sheet of Hungary’s Membership and Public Policies) – discusses the achievements and shortcomings of Hungary’s EU membership; what continuities and ruptures there have been across t...

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy , Michael S. Roth sketches the main ways of being a student since ancient times; reflects on the process of learning “to be free”; explores the reasons behind the politicization of universities in the United States; considers what might be new about the adversarial relationship between students and university administrators these days; and sketches w...

In this conversation with the Review of Democracy , Ho-fung Hung shares his eye-opening analysis of the internal contradictions and external limitations plaguing China’s export-led development model and offers novel insights into the difficulties its political leadership is encountering in challenging US hegemony and extending its global sphere of influence. While acknowledging China’s impressive...

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy , Joshua Leifer – author of the new book Tablets Shattered . The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life – analyzes the unravelling of the postwar American Jewish consensus and the reemergence of oppositional Jewish politics; discusses what he sees as the four main political-religious tendencies in our times and how his own re...

What are the most important legal and political challenges in rebuilding the Rule of Law in Poland? Polish Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar highlighted them in his lecture at the CEU Democracy Institute in Budapest. On May 27 the CEU Democracy Institute Rule of Law clinic was launched with an inaugural lecture from the Minister for Justice of Poland Adam Bodnar . The event provided a unique opportu...

In this conversation, Jannis Panagiotidis and Hans-Christian Petersen – authors of the new book Antiosteuropäischer Rassismus in Deutschland. Geschichte und Gegenwart (Racism Against East Europeans in Germany. History and the Present Day) – show why racism is an appropriate category when discussing stereotypes and prejudices against East Europeans; explain why there is a need for “an Eastern enlar...

In this conversation with Lorena Drakula, Yannis Stavrakakis – author of the new Research Handbook on Populism and the book Populist Discourse. Recasting Populism Research – discusses the past and future of populism research; analyzes the outdated stereotypes that shape the political role of the ‘populist’ label; and argues for returning passions to the very core of democratic representation. Yann...