Podcast: Democracy in Question with CEU President and Rector Shalini Randeria

Today, liberal democracies are under unprecedented strain from within and without. In each episode of Democracy in Question, renowned social anthropologist and CEU President and Rector Shalini Randeria invites a leading scholar or public figure to explore the challenges and dilemmas facing democracies around the world. They investigate what needs to be done to ensure the future well-being of our democratic institutions and practices.

Join Randeria and her guests for a series of dynamic discussions about democratic issues worldwide. Listen to the trailer and subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts.

LATEST PODCASTS

Sergei Guriev on the Changing Face of Autocracy

March 29, 2023

This episode explores the main differences between contemporary, quasi-dictatorial regimes based on spin, and older 20th-century dictatorships based on overt repression and fear. Why do spin dictators demonstrate a commitment to democratic elections and how do their actions undermine democracy from within? Listen to find out what such regimes teach us about internal contradictions of Western democracies and how similar spin dictators are to so-called populist leaders.

Mukulika Banerjee on the Cultivation of Democracy in India

March 13, 2023

This episode explores what makes republican values and practices important to the survival of any democracy, as well as the role of sociality in cultivating of a common sense of purpose, mutual interdependence, and collective engagement. What makes the agrarian ethos of Indian village communities resonate with the spirit of democratic republicanism and how does the rural India vote transform political consciousness?

Ken Opalo on the Prospects of Democracy Across Africa

March 1, 2023

This episode explores the current state of democracy across Africa. What are the main achievements since the 1990s and what are the biggest internal threats to consolidation of democracy? Why have democratic governments failed to deliver? Listen to how unfulfilled promises and aspirations for a better life have shaped the current context.

Ron Daniels on the Role of Universities in Strengthening Democracy

February 15, 2023

This episode explores the role universities play in upholding and deepening democracy. How does university education foster civic engagement and a democratic spirit? How do universities cultivate interactive diversity? And what positive contributions can institutions of higher education make in order to strengthen democracy today? Listen to the illuminating discussion regarding the relationship between universities and democracy.

Shaharzad Akbar on Afghanistan After Democracy

February 1, 2023

This episode explores the political mistakes which prevented human rights and the rule of law from taking root in Afghan society. What understandings of democracy prevailed following the U.S. invasion and what were the foundations on which the leaders of Afghanistan tried to build a modern republic? Listen to what made Taliban resurgence possible, as well as the prospects for a successful popular resistance to their rule of terror.

Democratic Backsliding in a Comparative Perspective with Thomas Carothers

January 18, 2023

What are the causes and consequences of democratic decline worldwide over the course of the last two decades? Has democracy in the United States recently drifted more towards democratic backsliding or did the results of the 2022 midterm elections inspire hope in the reversibility of democratic degeneration in the United States? What effect does this trend have on the stability of the international order, on the future of liberal democracy more largely, and not least, on the promotion of democracy abroad? How do we classify different types of democratic backsliding and are there institutional and organizational responses to these? Why have cultural issues become the symbolic battleground today for so many opponents of liberal democracy?

The Ongoing Iranian Demonstrations Fueled and Led by Women with Azadeh Moaveni

December 21, 2022

The ongoing protests in the past months have rocked Iran to its core. What began as a wave of street demonstrations and protests has by now turned into a veritable revolution led by courageous and defiant women. What is the broader historical context regarding these current events? How has the oppressive patriarchal regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran paradoxically generated forms of public participation, collective action, and mobilization, which have empowered women? What is the role of the media and of patterns of solidarity emerging in these protests and could these potentially lead to a transformation of the regime, or, in fact, to its end?

Brazilian Elections: Bolsonarism and Its Aftermath with Ricardo Regatieri

December 7, 2022

How has the success of an extreme authoritarian figure like Bolsonaro been enabled by the political field in Brazil? What is the trajectory of the Brazilian left, represented by PT, ‘The Workers' Party’, led now to victory by President-elect Lula? Lula's return to power marks a fresh start for democracy in Brazil, but it also comes at a time of major geopolitical transformations. What are the possibilities and constraints for Brazil in a global political arena marked by the triple crises of the post-COVID economy, climate change, and heightened military tensions? What is the role of the Brazilian judiciary in the fight against corruption?

Degenerations and Regenerations of Democracy with Charles Taylor

November 23, 2022

In this episode Shalini and her guest discuss why democracy is prone to degeneration, and how this affects our conventional notions of democracy itself. Do we usually depend too much on a thin formal institutional conception of democracy focused on electoral routines, and thus, neglect broader questions of class, culture, equality, and solidarity? How can we reimagine and also regenerate progressive democracy with the right balance of freedom, equality, and solidarity on the local, national, as well as supranational levels? And how can we overcome the pervasive sense of powerlessness in the face of abstract impersonal forces, forces that Charles Taylor refers to not only as opaque, but also as those signaling the loss of citizen efficacy?

The Current Crisis of American and Global Democracy and Potential Remedies with Craig Calhoun

November 9, 2022

In this episode Shalini and her guest discuss how U.S. American democracy is exhibiting symptoms of decline or even of degeneration given the continuing denial of the results of the last presidential election by many in the Republican Party and partisan efforts to curtail voting rights in the United States. How alarmed should one be about legislative capture and voter suppression by an increasingly combative Republican Party, which could significantly alter the very nature of American democracy? Do we need to re-evaluate our deep-seated faith in the irreversibility of democratic achievements in the face of soft authoritarian rulers all over the world becoming ever more popular? Is it time to reconsider issues of socioeconomic inequality and of class to revive a strong sense of collective purpose and solidarity that may indeed be indispensable for a defense of democracy?

To hear the first two series co-produced by the Graduate Institute’s Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy and the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) Vienna, visit here.

CEU President and Rector Shalini Randeria