politics

#906 Suthan Krishnarajan: Regime Instability and Support for Democracy and Autocracy

Feb 29, 2024

Dr. Suthan Krishnarajan is Associate Professor in Political Science at Aarhus University. His research agenda seeks to understand and explain political regime instability. Broadly speaking, a political regime is the rules that determine who can access power, and how, in a given country. In democracies, leaders are chosen in competitive, free, and fair elections; in autocracies, leaders access power through alternative means. In his research, he examines why such regimes sometimes endure and at other times break down. I do so from three traditional disciplines in political science: comparative politics, public opinion, and international relations. More»
#898 Eli Merritt: How to Save Democracy

Feb 9, 2024

Dr. Eli Merritt is a political historian at Vanderbilt University where he researches the ethics of democracy, the interface of demagogues and democracy, and the founding principles of the United States. He is the editor of How to Save Democracy: Inspiration and Advice From 95 World Leaders. More»
#889 Nadine Strossen - Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know

Jan 19, 2024

Dr. Nadine Strossen is the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita at New York Law School and past President of the American Civil Liberties Union (1991-2008). She is also a Senior Fellow with FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Education) and a leading expert and frequent speaker/media commentator on constitutional law and civil liberties. She serves on the advisory boards of the ACLU, Academic Freedom Alliance, Heterodox Academy, National Coalition Against Censorship, and the University of Austin. Her latest book is Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know. More»
#831 Freddie deBoer: How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement

Sep 7, 2023

Fredrik DeBoer is a writer and academic. He writes a newsletter on culture and politics. He is the author of The Cult of Smart, and, more recently, How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement. More»
#818 Tibor Rutar: The Rise, Benefits, and Challenges of Liberal Democracies

Aug 7, 2023

Dr. Tibor Rutar is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Maribor, Slovenia, Researcher at the Center for the Study of Post-Socialist Societies in Maribor, and Researcher at the Research Center for Strategy and Governance at the University of Ljubljana. His last two books are Rational Choice and Democratic Government: A Sociological Approach (Routledge, 2021) and Capitalism for Realists: Virtues and Vices of the Modern Economy (Routledge, 2022). More»
#772 Joseph Uscinski: The Politics and Psychology of Conspiracy Theories

Apr 21, 2023

Dr. Joseph Uscinski is Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami. He studies public opinion and mass media, with a focus on conspiracy theories and related misinformation. He is co-author of American Conspiracy Theories (Oxford, 2014) and editor of Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them (Oxford, 2018). His textbook on conspiracy theories is Conspiracy Theories: A Primer. More»
#760 Jonathan Maynard - Ideology and Mass Killing: The Radicalized Security Politics of Genocides

Mar 24, 2023

Dr. Jonathan Maynard is a Lecturer in International Politics at King's College London's Department of Political Economy. His research is primarily concerned with the role of ideology in collective political violence, especially in forms of violence against civilians such as genocides, mass atrocities and terrorism. He works more broadly on a range of subjects relating to ideology, international security, violent conflict and political extremism, and have secondary research interests in political and ethical theories of political violence and political speech, and on methodological debates in political theory and political science. He is the author of Ideology and Mass Killing: The Radicalized Security Politics of Genocides and Deadly Atrocities. More»
#748 Tereza Capelos: Ressentiment, Populism, Brexit, and the Role of Trust in Politics

Feb 24, 2023

Dr. Tereza Capelos is Associate Professor in Political Psychology at the University of Birmingham, Director of the Institute for Conflict Cooperation and Security, and past President of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP). Her research focuses on the affective, cognitive and motivational determinants of political judgments. She is particularly interested in the role of emotions and values on political radicalization and tolerance, the formation and updating of institutional and individual reputations and the role of trust and confidence on political accountability attributions. More»
#744 Sander van der Linden Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity

Feb 16, 2023

Dr. Sander van der Linden is Professor of Social Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab. His research interests center around the psychology of human judgment, communication, and decision-making, including social norms and networks, attitudes and polarization, reasoning about evidence, and the public understanding of risk and uncertainty. He is the author of Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity. More»
#740 Tibor Rutar - Capitalism for Realists: Virtues and Vices of the Modern Economy

Feb 6, 2023

Dr. Tibor Rutar is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Maribor, Slovenia, Researcher at the Center for the Study of Post-Socialist Societies in Maribor, and Researcher at the Research Center for Strategy and Governance at the University of Ljubljana. His scholarly work is currently focused on political, economic and historical sociology, particularly longstanding social issues related to democracy and capitalism. His lastest book is Capitalism for Realists: Virtues and Vices of the Modern Economy (Routledge, 2022). More»