Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way on the Durable Authoritarianism of Revolutionary Regimes
People like Lenin, Stalin, Mao, they basically lashed out at the entire capitalist world and that lashing out created a counterrevolutionary armed struggle, which in turn contributed to their durabili...
30 Aug 202241min
Laura Gamboa on Opposition Strategies to Resist Democratic Erosion
There's always another set of elections. So, let's set up for elections. Let's figure out how to mobilize people. Let's figure out how to engage them and answer the question, ‘Why they elected this pe...
23 Aug 202239min
Kim Lane Scheppele on Hungary, Viktor Orbán, and its Democratic Decline
So, I came back from that trip and said to one of my good friends back in Budapest, ‘I think I've met the most dangerous person I've ever met personally.’ And she said, ‘Oh Viktor, he's nothing. He's ...
16 Aug 202248min
Jessica Pisano on How Zelenskyy Changed Ukraine
There were lots of opportunities for a certain part of Ukrainian society to encounter Zelenskyy and to feel that they knew him. He was not an unknown quantity when he ran for president. So, I think th...
9 Aug 202234min
Neil DeVotta on the Protests in Sri Lanka
As long as people are able to cast their ballot, irrespective of the illiberalism, irrespective of all these other shortcomings, democracy, at least from a voting standpoint, has the capacity to surpr...
2 Aug 202238min
Aynne Kokas on the Intersection Between Surveillance Capitalism and Chinese Sharp Power (or How Much Does the CCP Already Know About You?)
The US consumer system is uniquely exploitative. US consumers are exploited by American companies, by French companies, by German companies, by Chinese companies, because there aren't laws protecting ...
26 Jul 202243min
Michael McFaul and Robert Person on Putin, Russia, and the War in Ukraine
There are a lot of people quietly who are deeply frustrated with this war. Every rich person in Russia with one or two exceptions are frustrated with this war. I think many of the so-called liberal te...
19 Jul 202234min
Scott Mainwaring on Argentina and a Final Reflection on Democracy in Hard Places
I think they're really important. But I don't think that they are a complete safeguard. Certainly, when you create democracies in hard places, you want to think very carefully about what institutions ...
12 Jul 202243min
