Are You a Democrat or a Democrat?

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I'm as interested in american politicss as the po politics of any other country except my anso it say, a pleasure, rather than a duty, devoted to follow America. But i do see so much in the American democratic experience that suggests that the beacon of democracy two centuries ago is now shining less less, less brightly. I think having compulsory voting would significantly improve turnout and make turn out more representative of the population as a whole.

We’re pretty well-calibrated when it comes to dealing with common, everyday-level setbacks. But our brains aren’t naturally equipped for dealing with unlikely but world-catastrophic disasters. Yet such threats are real, both natural and human-induced. We need to collectively get better at anticipating and preparing for them, at the level of political action. Andrew Leigh is an academic and author who now serves in the Parliament of Australia. We discuss how to move the conversation about existential risks from the ivory tower to implementation in real policies.

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Andrew Leigh received his Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is a member of the Australian House of Representatives representing Fenner. He was previously a professor of economics at Australian National University, and has served as Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury and Charities. His recent book is What’s the Worst That Could Happen? Existential Risk and Extreme Politics.

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