Democracy in Question?
Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy
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Freedom of Expression in an Unequal World
Democracy in Question?
02/09/22 • 32 min
Guests featured in this episode:
Irene Khan, the first woman to ever hold the mandate of UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression.
She is also a Distinguished Fellow and Research Associate at the Graduate Institute's Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy.
Previously, Irene Khan was Secretary-General of Amnesty International (2001-2009) and Director-General of the International Development Law Organization (2010 to 2019).
Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:
• Central European University: CEU
• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD
• The Podcast Company: Novel
Glossary for this episode...
Who is Maria Ressa?
(00:5:22 or p.2 in the transcript)
Maria Ressa, in full Maria Angelita Ressa, Filipino-American journalist who, through Rappler, the Manila-based digital media company for investigative journalism that she cofounded, became known for detailing the weaponization of social media and for exposing government corruption and human rights violations. Her reporting led to a backlash from the Philippine government, and Ressa, who holds dual citizenship, became an international symbol of the fight for freedom of the press in hostile circumstances. With Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, she was awarded the 2021Nobel Peace Prize, cited for using “freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence, and growing authoritarianism in her native country.” Source
What was the insurrection of Capitol Hill in 2021?
(00:6:02 or p.2 in the transcript)
United States Capitol attack of 2021, storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, by a mob of supporters of Republican President Donald J. Trump. The attack disrupted a joint session of Congress convened to certify the results of the presidential election of 2020, which Trump had lost to his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden. Because its object was to prevent a legitimate president-elect from assuming office, the attack was widely regarded as an insurrection or attempted coup d’état. The FBI and other law-enforcement agencies also considered it an act of domestic terrorism. For having given a speech before the attack in which he encouraged a large crowd of his supporters near the White House to march to the Capitol and violently resist Congress’s certification of Biden’s victory—which many in the crowd then did—Trump was impeached by the Democratic-led House of Representatives for “incitement of insurrection” (he was subsequently acquitted by the Senate). Source
What is the Facebook Oversight Board?
(00:18:49 or p.4 in the transcript)
The Oversight Board was created to help Facebook answer some of the most difficult questions around freedom of expression online: what to take down, what to leave up, and why.
The board uses its independent judgment to support people’s right to free expression and ensure those rights are being adequately respected. The board’s decisions to uphold or reverse Facebook’s content decisions will be binding, meaning Facebook will have to implement them, unless doing so could violate the law.
The purpose of the board is to promote free expression by making principled, independent decisions regarding content on Facebook and Instagram and by issuing recommendations on the relevant Facebook company content policy.
When fully staffed, the board will consist of 40 members from around the world that represent a diverse set of disciplines and backgrounds. These members will be empowered to select content cases for review and to uphold or reverse Facebook’s content decisions. The board is not designed to be a simple extension of Facebook’s existing content review process. Rather, it will review a select number of highly emblematic cases and determine if decisions were made in accordance with Facebook’s stated values and policies. Source
What is a platform law?
(00:21:06 or p.5 in the transcript)
The internet would seem to be an ideal platform for fostering norm diversity. The very structure of the internet resists centralized governance, while the opportunities it provides for the “long tail” of expression means even voices with extremely small audiences can find a home. In reality, however, the governance of online speech looks much more monolithic. This is largely a result of private “lawmaking” activity by internet intermediaries. Increasingly, social media companies like Facebook and Twitter are developing what David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur for the Promotion and Protection of the Righ...
When and how is power visible in politics?
Democracy in Question?
07/28/21 • 25 min
</p>
Power is a crucial, if essentially contested, concept. Its nature and exercise in democratic politics are not always easily grasped. Understanding who holds power, how it is used, and the relationship between those who govern and those who are governed, is critical in any political system. Professor Steven Lukes (formerly NYU) helps us figure out how to map power in politics and explains when and how it is visible.
Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:
• The Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna: IWM
• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD
• The Excellence Chair and Soft Authoritarianism Research Group in Bremen: WOC
• The Podcast Company: Earshot Strategies
Follow us on social media!
• Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna: @IWM_Vienna
• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: @AHDCentre
Subscribe to the show. If you enjoyed what you listened to, you can support us by leaving a review and sharing our podcast in your networks!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Power: A Radical View. (First edition published in 1974; third edition published in 2021).
• Emile Durkheim: His Life and Work. A Historical and Critical Study London. (1975; republished with new preface 1985).
GLOSSARY
Who are Antonio Gramsci and Michel Foucault?
(00:06:00 or p. 5 in the transcript)
Antonio Gramsci (1891—1937) was an intellectual and politician, and a founder of the Italian Communist Party whose ideas greatly influenced Italian communism. Extracts of Gramsci’s prison writings were published for the first time in the mid-20th century. Many of his propositions became a fundamental part of Western Marxist thought and influenced the post-World War II strategies of communist parties in the West. Source.
Michel Foucault (1926—1984) was a French philosopher and historian, and one of the most influential and controversial scholars of the post-World War II period. Foucault continually sought for a way of understanding the ideas that shape our present not only in terms of the historical function these ideas played, but also by tracing the changes in their function through history. Foucault describes three types of power in his empirical analyses: sovereign power, disciplinary power, and biopower. To learn more about Foucault’s work on power, click here.
Where can I learn more about Shoshana Zuboff’s book “Surveillance Capitalism”?
(00:11:15 or p. 7 in the transcript)
Find a review of the book here. Click here for the book.
Who is Marquis de Condorcet?
(00:12:30 or p. 8 in the transcript)
Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet, (1743—1794) was a French philosopher of the Enlightenment and advocate of educational reform and women’s rights. He was one of the major Revolutionary formulators of the ideas of progress, or the indefinite perfectibility of humankind.He died in prison after a period of flight from French Revolutionary authorities. Learn more.
What is Cambridge Analytica?
(00:14:30 or p. 9 in the transcript)
Cambridge Analytica is a data analytics firm that worked with Donald Trump’s election team and the winning Brexit campaign, and harvested millions of Facebook profiles of US voters, in one of the tech giant’s biggest ever data breaches. It used them to build a powerful software program to predict and influence choices at the ballot box. Learn more.
What is the Chinese model of state capitalism?
(00:20:00 or p. 12 in th...
How can we structure digital spaces more democratically?
Democracy in Question?
07/15/21 • 25 min
</p>
Digital technologies have changed and are changing our world. But the euphoria about these technologies not only improving connectivity, but creating a global public sphere have given way to caution about their impact. With the increasing monopolization of digital infrastructure and accumulation of power by a few giant Big Tech companies, there is increasing concern over its impact on our freedoms, as well as the ways in which it shapes how we live and perceive the world. In this episode, Evgeny Morozov (founder of the content recommendation website The Syllabus) helps us understand how we can structure digital spaces more democratically, while harvesting the transformational potential of these technologies.
Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:
• The Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna: IWM
• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD
• The Excellence Chair and Soft Authoritarianism Research Group in Bremen: WOC
• The Podcast Company: Earshot Strategies
Follow us on social media!
• Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna: @IWM_Vienna
• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: @AHDCentre
• Our guest Evgeny Morovoz: @evgenymorozov
Subscribe to the show. If you enjoyed what you listened to, you can support us by leaving a review and sharing our podcast in your networks!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Digital Socialism? The Calculation Debate in the Age of Big Data. (2019).
• To Save Everything, Click Here. (2014).
GLOSSARY
What is Davos?
(00:07:00 or p. 5 in the transcript)
Davos is a town in the Swiss Alps which is best known for hosting the annual World Economic Forum. To learn more about the World Economic Forum, click here.
Who are Larry Page and Sergey Brin?
(00:19:30 or p. 13 in the transcript)
Larry Page and Sergey Brin are the founders of Google. They met in 1995 at Stanford University. In this part of the episode our guest Evgeny Morozov is referencing Google’s origin story. To learn more about Google’s history click here.
What is Mountain View?
(00:19:30 or p. 13 in the transcript)
Mountain View is the birthplace of Silicon Valley and is the location of many of the world's largest technology companies, including Google and Alphabet Inc., Mozilla Foundation, Intuit, NASA Ames research center, and major headquarter offices for Microsoft, Symantec, 23andMe, LinkedIn, Samsung, and Synopsys. Source.
Who is Edward Snowden?
(00:22:30 or p. 15 in the transcript)
Edward Snowden is the whistleblower who revealed the NSA’s mass surveillance program in the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA’s history. Learn more about his leak from this 2013 article.
What is AI?
(00:25:00 or p. 16 in the transcript)
AI is short for Artificial Intelligence, a term that describes the ability of computers to perform tasks that are usually associated with intelligent beings. The term also often refers to the project of developing systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans. Click here to learn more.
The struggle for voting rights in the US today
Democracy in Question?
09/15/21 • 32 min
The most pernicious assault on American democracy today are the laws and measures enacted in various state legislatures under Republican control that aim at voter restriction. Among the foremost voices in the struggle for democratic rights in the United States is Stacey Abrams, U.S. politician and activist. Her campaign for protecting voting rights and resisting disenfranchisement of black and other minority voters has been central in pushing back against these insidious moves that dismantle democracy from within using formally legitimate means. We open our third series of Democracy in Question by asking Stacey to shed light on organizational and political issues around voting rights, democracy, and demography.
Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:
• Central European University: CEU
• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD
• The Podcast Company: Novel
Follow us on social media!
• Central European University: @CEU
• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: @AHDCentre
• Our guest Stacey Abrams: @staceyabrams
Subscribe to the show. If you enjoyed what you listened to, you can support us by leaving a review and sharing our podcast in your networks!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change. (2018)
Our Time is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America. (2020)
Rules of Engagement (2001)
The Art of Desire (2001)
Power of Persuasion (2002)
Never Tell (2004)
Hidden Sins (2006)
Secrets and Lies (2006)
Reckless (2008)
Deception (2009).
GLOSSARY
What is Hot Call Summer?
(00:13:20 or p.3 in the transcript)
Hot Call Summer was Abram’s ask for people to call their senators demanding they support the For the People Act. Source.
What is nativism?
(00:26:30 or p.4 of the transcript)
Nativism is xenophobic nationalism. An ideology that wants congruence of state and nation as a political cultural unit. Source.
What is the insurrection of January 6?
(00:27:30 or p.4 of the transcript)
On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., was violently attacked by a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump. Source.
Adam Habib on South Africa's Elections
Democracy in Question?
07/03/24 • 50 min
Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:
• Central European University: CEU
• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD
• The Podcast Company: scopeaudio
Follow us on social media!
• Central European University: @CEU
• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: @AHDCentre
Subscribe to the show. If you enjoyed what you listened to, you can support us by leaving a review and sharing our podcast in your networks!
Glossary
African National Congress (ANC)
(02:22 or p.1 in the transcript)
African National Congress (ANC) is a South African political party and Black nationalist organization. Founded in 1912 as the South African Native National Congress, it had as its main goal the maintenance of voting rights for Coloureds (persons of mixed race) and Black Africans in Cape Province. It was renamed the African National Congress in 1923. From the 1940s it spearheaded the fight to eliminate apartheid, the official South African policy of racial separation and discrimination. The ANC was banned from 1960 to 1990 by the white South African government; during these three decades it operated underground and outside South African territory. The ban was lifted in 1990, and Nelson Mandela, the president of the ANC, was elected in 1994 to head South Africa’s first multiethnic government. The party received a majority of the vote in that election and every election after until 2024, when it saw its support plummet to about 40 percent. source
Growth, Employment, and Redistribution (GEAR) Strategy
(10:30 or p.3 in the transcript)
After democratic elections in 1994, postapartheid South Africa was faced with the problem of integrating the previously disenfranchised and oppressed majority into the economy. In 1996 the government created a five-year plan—Growth, Employment, and Redistribution (GEAR)—that focused on privatization and the removal of exchange controls. GEAR was only moderately successful in achieving some of its goals but was hailed by some as laying an important foundation for future economic progress. The government also implemented new laws and programs designed to improve the economic situation of the marginalized majority. One such strategy, called Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), focused on increasing the number of employment opportunities for people formerly classified under apartheid as Black, Coloured, or Indian, improving their work skills, and enhancing their income-earning potential. The concept of BEE was further defined and expanded by the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Act of 2003 (promulgated in 2004), which addressed gender and social inequality as well as racial inequality. source
Why are reproductive rights so contentious in the US and Argentina?
Democracy in Question?
08/11/21 • 29 min
</p>
There is considerable political mobilization and legal contention around Reproductive rights in many democracies around the world. In the US, a rollback of these rights has been underway over the past decades. The Supreme Court is likely to (re)consider its landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. In contrast, activists have made progress on reproductive rights elsewhere in the world. Only a few months ago, Argentina legalised abortions up to the 14th week of pregnancy. In this episode, we’re joined by Katha Pollitt (feminist writer and activist) and Tamara Tenenbaum (University of Buenos Aires and also an activist) to compare and contrast the experience in their societies. They discuss what the current struggles, setbacks and victories mean for the future of reproductive rights around the world.
Disclaimer: this episode contains explicit language
Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:
• The Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna: IWM
• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD
• The Excellence Chair and Soft Authoritarianism Research Group in Bremen: WOC
• The Podcast Company: Earshot Strategies
Follow us on social media!
• Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna: @IWM_Vienna
• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: @AHDCentre
• Our guest Katha Pollitt: @KathaPollitt
• Our guest Tamara Tenenbaum: @tamtenenbaum
Subscribe to the show. If you enjoyed what you listened to, you can support us by leaving a review and sharing our podcast in your networks!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Katha Pollitt. (2014). Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights.
• Katha Pollitt. (1997). Whose Culture?
• Tamara Tenenbaum. (2019). The Untranslatable Journey of Argentina’s Fourth Feminist Wave.
• Tamara Tenenbaum. (2019). El fin del amor: Querer y coger.
• Tamara Tenenbaum. (2021). Todas nuestras maldiciones se cumplieron.
GLOSSARY
What is Roe v. Wade?
(00:02:00 or p. 2 in the transcript)
Roe v. Wade (1973) was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction. It struck down many U.S. federal and state abortion laws and prompted an ongoing national. Roe v. Wade reshaped U.S. politics, dividing much of the country into abortion rights and anti-abortion movements, while activating grassroots movements on both sides. Click here to learn more.
What is Planned Parenthood and NARAL?
(00:18:00 or p. 11 in the transcript)
Planned Parenthood Federation of America is a nonprofit organization that provides sexual health care, including family planning services, abortions, and STD testing in the United States and globally.
NARAL stands for National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws. It is a pro-choice advocacy organization.
What is the fourth and second feminist wave?
(00:24:00 or p. 15 in the transcript)
Second wave feminism was a period of feminist activity and thought that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It began in the U.S. and quickly spread across the Western world. This wave unfolded in the context of the anti-war and civil rights movements. Learn more.
Many claim that a fourth wave of feminism began about 2012, with a focus on sexual harassment, body shaming, and rape culture, among other issues. A key component was the use of social media to highlight and address these concerns.
Perspectives on Putin and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
Democracy in Question?
05/11/22 • 33 min
Guests featured in this episode:
Stephen Holmes, the Walter E. Mayer Professor of Law and co-director of the Center on Law and Security at New York University. Stephen has been the recipient of prestigious fellowships from, among others, the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, the Wissenschaftkolleg in Berlin, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the IWM in Vienna.
Between 1994 and 1996, he served as Director of the Soros Foundation program for promoting legal reform in Russia and Eastern Europe, and was also named Carnegie Scholar in 2003-2005 for his work on Russian legal reform.
He is also the co-author of The Light that Failed: A Reckoning with Ivan Krastev, a book that details the ride of authoritarian antiliberalism in Russia.
GLOSSARY
What is the Kievan Rus ?
(00:8:11 or p.2 in the transcript)
Kievan Rus (862-1242) was a medieval political federation located in modern-day Belarus, Ukraine, and part of Russia (the latter named for the Rus, a Scandinavian people). The name Kievan Rus is a modern-day (19th century) designation but has the same meaning as 'land of the Rus,' which is how the region was known in the Middle Ages.
The Rus ruled from the city of Kiev (also given as Kyiv) and so 'Kievan Rus' simply meant "the lands of the Rus of Kiev". The Rus are first mentioned in the Annals of Saint-Bertin which records their presence in a diplomatic mission from Constantinople to the court of Louis the Pious (r. 814-840) in 839. The annals claim they were Swedes, and this is possible, but their ethnicity has never been firmly established. Source:
What was the crisis and annexation of Crimea ?
(00:08:38 or p.2 in the transcript)
As pro-Russian protesters became increasingly assertive in Crimea, groups of armed men whose uniforms lacked any clear identifying marks surrounded the airports in Simferopol and Sevastopol.. Masked gunmen occupied the Crimean parliament building and raised a Russian flag, as pro-Russian lawmakers dismissed the sitting government and installed Sergey Aksyonov, the leader of the Russian Unity Party, as Crimea’s prime minister.
On March 6 the Crimean parliament voted to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation, with a public referendum on the matter scheduled for March 16, 2014. On the day of the referendum, observers noted numerous irregularities in the voting process, including the presence of armed men at polling stations, and the result was an overwhelming 97 percent in favour of joining Russia On March 18 Putin met with Aksyonov and other regional representatives and signed a treaty incorporating Crimea into the Russian Federation. Western governments protested the move. Within hours of the treaty’s signing, a Ukrainian soldier was killed when masked gunmen stormed a Ukrainian military base outside Simferopol. Russian troops moved to occupy bases throughout the peninsula, including Ukrainian naval headquarters in Sevastopol, as Ukraine initiated the evacuation of some 25,000 military personnel and their families from Crimea. On March 21 after the ratification of the annexation treaty by the Russian parliament, Putin signed a law formally integrating Crimea into Russia. Source:
Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:
• Central European University: CEU
• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD
• The Podcast Company: Novel
Follow us on social media!
• Central European University: @CEU
• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: @AHDCentre
Subscribe to the show. If you enjoyed what you listened to, you can support us by leaving a review and sharing our podcast in your networks!
Nadia Urbinati on the Resurgence of Populism, its History, and its Various Forms
Democracy in Question?
10/12/22 • 39 min
Guests featured in this episode:
Nadia Urbinati, the Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Professor of Political Theory at Columbia University. She is also a permanent visiting professor at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa (Italy), and has taught at Bocconi University Milan (Italy), Sciences Po Paris (France) and the UNICAMP University (Brazil). Her main fields of expertise are modern and contemporary political thought and the democratic, as well as anti-democratic traditions.
GLOSSARY
What is the People’s Party?
(13:05 or p.4 in the transcript)
The People's Party: (also known as the Populist Party) was an important political party in the United States of America during the late nineteenth century. The People's Party originated in the early 1890s. It was organized in Kansas, but the party quickly spread across the United States. It drew its members from Farmers' Alliances, the Grange, and the Knights of Labor. Originally, the Populists did not form a national organization, preferring to gain political influence within individual states. The Populist Party consisted primarily of farmers unhappy with the Democratic and Republican Parties. The Populists believed that the federal government needed to play a more active role in the American economy by regulating various businesses, especially the railroads. In particular, the Populists supported women's suffrage the direct election of United States Senators. They hoped that the enactment women's suffrage and the direct election of senators would enable them to elect some of their members to political office. Populists also supported a graduated income tax, government ownership of the railroads, improved working conditions in factories, immigration restrictions, an eight-hour workday, the recognition of unions, and easier access to credit. source
What is the Reconstruction?
(13:10 or p.4 in the transcript)
Reconstruction: in U.S. history, the period (1865–77) that followed the American Civil War and during which attempts were made to redress the inequities of slavery and its political, social, and economic legacy and to solve the problems arising from the readmission to the Union of the 11 states that had seceded at or before the outbreak of war. Long portrayed by many historians as a time when vindictiveRadical Republicans fastened Black supremacy upon the defeated Confederacy, Reconstruction has since the late 20th century been viewed more sympathetically as a laudable experiment in interracial democracy. Reconstruction witnessed far-reaching changes in America’s political life. At the national level, new laws and constitutionalamendments permanently altered the federal system and the definition of American citizenship. In the South, a politically mobilized Black community joined with white allies to bring the Republican Party to power, and with it a redefinition of the responsibilities of government. source
What is austerity?
(16:23 or p.4 in the transcript)
Austerity: (also called austerity measures) is a set of economic policies, usually consisting of tax increases, spending cuts, or a combination of the two, used by governments to reduce budget deficits. Austerity measures can in principle be used at any time when there is concern about government expenditures exceeding government revenues. Often, however, governments delay resorting to such measures because they are usually politically unpopular. Instead, governments tend to rely on other means—for example, deficit financing, which involves borrowing from financial markets—to mitigate budget deficits in the short run, a decision that usually necessitates the adoption of harsher austerity measures in the long run. source
What is universal suffrage?
(18:32 or p.5 in the transcript)
Universal suffrage: generally understood as the right to vote for political representatives conferred to almost all adult citizens or residents, regardless of their social status, property, knowledge, religion, race, gender, or other similar qualifications. The principle of universal suffrage, together with principles of equal, free, secret, and direct suffrage, present fundamental principles of elections common to all democracies around the world. Universal suffrage is one of two historically developed concepts of the suffrage—consisting of the right to vote and the right to stand for election. The other one, a concept contrary to universal suffrage, can be denominated as so-called limited suffrage. The concept of limited suffrage, preferred until the nineteenth century, was based on the exclusion of a large number of people from the suffrage. It was done based on socia...
Imminent Scenarios in Ukraine
Democracy in Question?
03/30/22 • 35 min
Guests featured in this episode:
Slawomir Sierakowski, a Polish sociologist and political analyst, with extensive knowledge of not only Ukraine and Russia, but also the potential third party in the current war, Belarus. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief of the Krytyka Polityczna (Political Critique) magazine. His more than 400 articles and op-eds include not only publications in Polish, but regular monthly columns in the international edition of The New York Times and Project Syndicate, among others.
GLOSSARY
What is the “Budapest Memorandum”?
(00:8:02 or p.2 in the transcript)
On December 5, 1994, leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Russian Federation met in Budapest, Hungary, to pledge security assurances to Ukraine in connection with its accession to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as a non-nuclear-weapons state. The signature of the so-called Budapest Memorandum concluded arduous negotiations that resulted in Ukraine’s agreement to relinquish the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal, which the country inherited from the collapsed Soviet Union, and transfer all nuclear warheads to Russia for dismantlement. The signatories of the memorandum pledged to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and inviolability of its borders, and to refrain from the use or threat of military force. Russia breached these commitments with its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and aggression in eastern Ukraine, bringing the meaning and value of security assurance pledged in the Memorandum under renewed scrutiny. Source
What is Nord Stream 2 pipeline?
(00:17:10 or p.4 in the transcript)
The construction of the controversial natural gas pipeline Nord Stream brings gas from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany, running parallel to, and expanding the capacity of, the existing Nord Stream pipeline. The project would allow additional Russian gas to flow directly to Germany. Opponents argue that it would increase Russian influence in Germany. This is a concern for Poland, the Baltic states, and the Ukraine, which also fear that they would lose out on revenue from the transport of natural gas via other existing routes. Critics also argue that a new gas pipeline does not fit with the EU’s strategy that aims at replacing fossil with renewable energy in the medium term, which would make Nord Stream 2 a stranded investment.
Nord Stream 2 has been completed with some delay, but hurdles in the certification procedure and political tensions at the Ukrainian-Russian border have held up the project. Source
Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:
• Central European University: CEU
• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD
• The Podcast Company: Novel
Follow us on social media!
• Central European University: @CEU
• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: @AHDCentre
Subscribe to the show. If you enjoyed what you listened to, you can support us by leaving a review and sharing our podcast in your networks!
Does liberalism need reinvention in the 21st century?
Democracy in Question?
05/05/21 • 27 min
</p>
The decline and even death of liberalism has been predicted often. Today it faces challenges not only from populism in Europe and the US but also from China offering an illiberal alternative that may prove attractive to leaders in the global South. In this episode, Professor Timothy Garton Ash (University of Oxford) joins us to analyze the future of liberalism. We discuss what liberalism can learn from its mistakes to emerge stronger.
Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:
• The Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna: IWM
• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD
• The Excellence Chair and Soft Authoritarianism Research Group in Bremen: WOC
• The Podcast Company Earshot Strategies
Follow us on social media!
• Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna: @IWM_Vienna
• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: @AHDCentre
Subscribe to the show. If you enjoyed what you listened to, you can support us by leaving a review and sharing our podcast in your networks!
Soft Authoritarianism and the Ambivalences of Europeanisation: What Role Could the EU Play?, Jens Adam reflects on the latest episode of the podcast series.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• The Magic Lantern. (2019).
• Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World. (2017).
• Read more from Timothy Garton Ash in The Guardian.
• Read more from Timothy Garton Ash in The New York Review of Books.
GLOSSARY
What is soft authoritarianism?
(00:01:00 or p. 1 in the transcript)
The term soft authoritarianism is used to describe countries which have multiple parties and elections, but where the regime keeps the media and influential institutions on a short leash, exercising its power behind the ostensive freedom of choice. Source.
What does Velvet Revolution mean?
(00:16:00 or p. 10 in the transcript)
The Velvet Revolution was a transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 29 December 1989. The protests started eight days after the fall of the Berlin Wall with student protesters. The students were joined in the coming days by Czechoslovak citizens of all ages and the Communists were forced out. By the end of 1989, Czechoslovakia was on its way to having an elected President for the first time since 1948. The revolution is often described as “non-violent”, hence its descriptive title “Velvet Revolution.” Learn more.
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FAQ
How many episodes does Democracy in Question? have?
Democracy in Question? currently has 92 episodes available.
What topics does Democracy in Question? cover?
The podcast is about History, Democracy, Podcasts and Government.
What is the most popular episode on Democracy in Question??
The episode title 'How can we structure digital spaces more democratically?' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Democracy in Question??
The average episode length on Democracy in Question? is 37 minutes.
How often are episodes of Democracy in Question? released?
Episodes of Democracy in Question? are typically released every 14 days.
When was the first episode of Democracy in Question??
The first episode of Democracy in Question? was released on Sep 24, 2020.
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