RevDem Podcast

In this conversation with Lorena Drakula, Yannis Stavrakakis – author of the new Research Handbook on Populism and the book Populist Discourse. Recasting Populism Research – discusses the past and future of populism research; analyzes the outdated stereotypes that shape the political role of the ‘populist’ label; and argues for returning passions to the very core of democratic representation. Yannis Stavrakakis is a Professor of Political Science at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and director of the Laboratory for the Study of Democracy. He was one of the founding co-conveners of the Populism Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association (UK) and also directed the POPULISMUS Observatory.

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy, Mike Smeltzer – Senior Research Analyst at Freedom House who has just co-led the research on the Nations in Transit 2024 report – clarifies how the research they conduct into the broad and diverse post-communist region conceives of democracy; explains how the newest developments in these twenty-nine countries can be related to long-term trends and how these countries may fit broader patterns; discusses what autocratizing hybrid regimes – such as Georgia, Hungary, or Serbia – have in common and how autocracies help each other these days; and reflects on the most positive developments and urgent tasks for democrats. Mike Smeltzer is an expert ondevelopments in the post- space and Senior Research Analyst for Nations in Transit, Freedom House’s annual survey of democratic governance from Central Europe to Eurasia. He has led the research, together with Alexandra Karppi, on the Nations in Transit 2024 report. The Nations in Transit 2024 report – subtitled “A Region Reordered by Autocracy and Democracy” – can be accessed here.

Since the 2015 refugee crisis there has been an increasing ‘securitization’ of EU refugee law that has only been exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In this latest RevDem Rule of Law podcast Oliver Garner discusses this phenomenon with Aleksandra Ancite- Jepifánova. She is a Research Affiliate with the Refugee Law Initiative at the University of London and Visiting Fellow at the Centre of Law and Society at Cardiff University.

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy, Martin Conway and Camilo Erlichman – editors of the new volume Social Justice in Twentieth-Century Europe – discuss how to approach the question of social justice historically; show how this aspiration may be placed at the confluence of key developments in the twentieth century; explain how focusing on these questions allows us to study the interactions between rulers and the ruled; sketch some of the main features of different eras of social justice; and consider whether social justice is still understood primarily by its absence as it so often was during the past century. Martin Conway is a Professor of Contemporary European History at the University of Oxford. His recent books include the major monograph Western Europe's Democratic Age: 1945 to 1968. Camilo Erlichman is a historian of modern and contemporary Europe who acts as an Assistant Professor at Maastricht University. He is also the co-founder and co-convenor of the Occupation Studies Research Network. Social Justice in Twentieth-Century Europe has been published by Cambridge University Press.   The conversation was conducted by Ferenc Laczó.  Ádám Hushegyi prepared the audio file for publication.

In this interview with Tarunabh Khaitan, we discuss the ongoing crisis of democracy and constitutionalism in India. At the time of conducting the interview, elections are underway in India, with approximately a month left for results to be declared. In this context, we discuss the differences between the first and the second term of the Modi government, India’s place in the ongoing wave of global populism, suggestions for recovering constitutional democracy, and the dangers of “Scholactivism”.

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy, Judith Butler – author of the new book Who’s Afraid of Gender – discuss their interpretation of the anti-gender ideology movement and what makes it ‘inadvertently confessional’; explain why we should think about the material and the social as intertwined also when we reflect on issues of gender; show what a broader, more global discussion of such issues could yield; and illuminate how they think about radical democracy. Judith Butler are among the best known and most discussed philosophers, gender scholars, and cultural critics in our age. They have exerted a major influence on a host of fields, perhaps most evidently on feminist and queer scholarship. They act as Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Who’s Afraid of Gender has been published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.   The conversation was conducted by Ferenc Laczó. Lucie Hunter edited the recording.

In the latest RevDem Rule of Law podcast Oliver Garner discusses the substantive and constitutional tensions caused by the Court of Justice of the EU’s internal market case-law with Dr Vilija Velyvyte. She is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Reading and was previously a Lecturer in EU Law and Constitutional Law at the University of Oxford. She is the author of Judicial Authority in EU Internal Market Law: Implications for the Balance of Competences and Powers (Hart Publishing, 2022).

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy, Philipp Lenhard – author of the new book Café Marx. Das Institut für Sozialforschung von den Anfängen bis zur Frankfurter Schule (Café Marx. The Institute for Social Research from the Beginnings to the Frankfurt School) – discusses the history of the Institute For Social Research and the Frankfurt School and his approach to this subject; shows what his exploration of less famous actors in this history and his focus on spaces and networks have yielded; and reflects on what the impact of the Institute for Social Research and the Frankfurt School has been like – and what might be most relevant about critical theory today. Philipp Lenhard is a DAAD Professor at the Department of History, the University of California, Berkeley. He completed his PhD and Habilitation at the University of Munich. His research interests include Modern Jewish History; Modern German History;  Intellectual History; Critical Theory and the Frankfurt School; and Comparative European History. Café Marx. Das Institut für Sozialforschung von den Anfängen bis zur Frankfurter Schule (Café Marx. The Institute for Social Research from the Beginnings to the Frankfurt School) has been published by C.H. Beck.   The conversation was conducted by Ferenc Laczó. Lucie Hunter prepared the recording for publication.

In this conversation at the Review of Democracy, Joseph Stiglitz discusses key features of progressive, social democratic capitalism; explains what motivated him to want to reclaim the language of freedom from the Right; and reflects on what the toolkit of the economist can contribute to our understanding of the relationship between freedom and democracy. Joseph Stiglitz is among the best-known economists and public policy analysts in the world. He acted as the senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and also served as the chairman of the US president’s Council of Economic Advisers. Stiglitz was the recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001. He currently acts as a professor at Columbia University. The Road to Freedom. Economics and the Good Society has been published by W. W. Norton.   The conversation was conducted by Ferenc Laczó.

Oliver Garner: You have recently published a working paper for the CEU Democracy Institute on the subversion of judicial legitimacy in Mexico by presidential rhetoric. Could you summarize this phenomenon for our listeners who may not be familiar with the political context in Mexico?  Azul Aguilar: I wanted to explore how the dynamics of attacks from the President on the judiciary are evolving and what are the causes, conditions, and the timing of these rhetorical attacks. I wanted to explore this because the judiciary is an important institution in presidential and constitutional democracies as it guarantees the separation of powers and checks and balances. I wanted to study this and put it into a research program because, since the arrival of our current President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador in 2018, we have seen variations in how the president refers to the judges and constitutional judges in the judiciary. I started my discussion in the working paper from the 1994 judicial reform. This reform is very important for us because it radically transformed the performance of the judiciary. The 1994 reform introduced judicial independence for the courts and a professional system of judges. But the most important change in this reform was that it empowered the courts through a mechanism called constitutional actions. This mechanism of judicial review allowed the courts to review the legislation of both the executive and the legislative branch in Mexico. It also allowed another mechanism, called amparo, meaning the real rights that can be contested by society because they think some institutional acts violate or breach their rights.