126 | David Stasavage on the Origin and History of Democracy

126 | David Stasavage on the Origin and History of Democracy

Those of us living in democracies tend to take the idea for granted. We forget what an audacious, radical idea it is to put government power into the hands of literally all of the citizens of a country. Where did such an idea come from, and where is it going? Political scientist David Stasavage has written an ambitious history of democracy worldwide, in which he makes a number of unconventional points. The roots of democracy go much further back than we often think; the idea wasn't invented in Athens, but can be found in a large number of ancient societies. And the resurgence of democracy in Europe wasn't because that continent was especially advanced, but precisely the opposite. These insights have implications for what the future of democracy has in store.

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David Stasavage received his Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. He is currently Dean for the Social Sciences and the Julius Silver Professor in the Department of Politics at New York University and an Affiliated Professor in NYU's School of Law. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His most recent book is The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today.


Jaksot(416)

108 | Carl Bergstrom on Information, Disinformation, and Bullshit

108 | Carl Bergstrom on Information, Disinformation, and Bullshit

We are living, in case you haven't noticed, in a world full of bullshit. It's hard to say whether the amount is truly increasing, but it seems that everywhere you look someone is trying to convince yo...

3 Elo 20201h 24min

107 | Russ Shafer-Landau on the Reality of Morality

107 | Russ Shafer-Landau on the Reality of Morality

Despite occasional and important disagreements, most people are in rough agreement about what it means to be moral, to do the right thing. There's much less agreement about why we should be moral, or ...

27 Heinä 20201h 30min

106 | Stuart Bartlett on What "Life" Means

106 | Stuart Bartlett on What "Life" Means

Someday, most likely, we will encounter life that is not as we know it. We might find it elsewhere in the universe, we might find it right here on Earth, or we might make it ourselves in a lab. Will w...

20 Heinä 20201h 25min

105 | Ann-Sophie Barwich on the Science and Philosophy of Smell

105 | Ann-Sophie Barwich on the Science and Philosophy of Smell

We gather empirical evidence about the nature of the world through our senses, and use that evidence to construct an image of the world in our minds. But not all senses are created equal; in practice,...

13 Heinä 20201h 17min

104 | David Rosen and Scott Miles on the Neuroscience of Music and Creativity

104 | David Rosen and Scott Miles on the Neuroscience of Music and Creativity

Creativity is one of those things that we all admire but struggle to define or make concrete. Music provides a useful laboratory in which to examine what creativity is all about — how do people become...

6 Heinä 20201h 26min

103 | J. Kenji López-Alt on Cooking As and With Science

103 | J. Kenji López-Alt on Cooking As and With Science

Cooking is art, but it's also very much science — mostly chemistry, but with important contributions from physics and biology. (Almost like a well-balanced recipe…) And I can't think of anyone better ...

29 Kesä 20201h 15min

102 | Maria Konnikova on Poker, Psychology, and Reason

102 | Maria Konnikova on Poker, Psychology, and Reason

The best chess and Go players in the world aren't human beings any more; they're artificially-intelligent computer programs. But the best poker players are still humans. Poker is a laboratory for unde...

22 Kesä 20201h 20min

101 | David Baltimore on the Mysteries of Viruses

101 | David Baltimore on the Mysteries of Viruses

I recently saw an estimate that if you took all the novel coronaviruses in the world (the actual viruses, not patients), you could fit them into a bucket no more than a couple of liters in volume. A h...

15 Kesä 20201h 14min

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