Democratic Backsliding and the Role of Populism (Associate Professor Marisa Kellam)

Associate Professor Marisa Kellam (Faculty of Political Science and Economics) joins MC Assistant Professor Robert Fahey (Waseda Institute for Advanced Study) to talk about their mutual research interests: populism and democracy. The focus of the episode is Professor Kellam’s recently published article, “Who's to Blame for Democratic Backsliding: Populists, Presidents, or Dominant Executives?”, which she wrote together with her former Waseda PhD student. The research was based on data spanning 98 countries, 856 elected executives, and a 50-year period. Listen for tips on how they managed such a large dataset and how it produced a clear answer to the question of who is actually to blame for erosions to democracy that occur during their terms in office.  Link to transcript:  https://www.waseda.jp/top/en/news/82695

About the Guests:

--Associate Professor Marisa Kellam--

Dr. Marisa Kellam is an associate professor at Waseda University, where she researches the quality of democracy in Latin America. Her research links institutional analysis to various governance outcomes in democracies within three lines of inquiry: political parties and coalitional politics; mass electoral behavior and party system change; and democratic accountability and media freedom.

After earning a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), Dr. Kellam spent several years as an assistant professor at Texas A&M University. Since moving to Tokyo in 2013, she teaches international and Japanese students in the English-based degree program of Waseda University’s School of Political Science & Economics. During her 2021-2023 sabbatical, she was a visiting scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University.

--MC Assistant Professor Robert Fahey--

Dr. Robert A. Fahey is an assistant professor of political science at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study in Tokyo, Japan. His research interests include populism, polarisation, the effects of conspiracy theory belief, and Japanese politics. He is currently working on a series of large-scale surveys aimed at discovering what kinds of conspiracy beliefs are widespread in East Asian countries, and how those beliefs impact the political and social life of those nations.