RevDem Podcast

In this conversation with RevDem editor Robert Nemeth, Dean Starkman and Neil Weinberg (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) talk about Cyprus Confidential, the investigation exposing how Cyprus-based financial services firms have enabled the Russian elite— including Vladimir Putin’s inner circle — to shelter their wealth and shield billions of dollars in assets from the threat of impending sanctions. They explain how this system worked and what enabled it, but also share insights into how journalists work on cross-border collaborative projects on such scale.   Dean Starkman is a senior editor for ICIJ, a Fellow of the CEU Democracy Institute, and a visiting lecturer at the School of Public Policy at the Central European University. He is the author of The Watchdog That Didn’t Bark: The Financial Crisis and the Disappearance of Investigative Journalism, an acclaimed analysis of business-press failures prior to the 2008 financial crisis and theoretical framework for journalism’s past, present, and future. An investigative reporter for more than two decades, he covered white-collar crime and national real estate for The Wall Street Journal and helped lead the Providence Journal’s investigative team to a Pulitzer Prize in 1994. Neil Weinberg is a senior reporter for ICIJ. He has more than three decades' experience in journalism, including most recently as a business and finance reporter at Bloomberg. He served as editor-in-chief of trade publication American Banker from 2011 to 2014, and prior to that was a journalist with the Forbes Media Group for almost 20 years, first as a reporter before becoming a bureau chief and, ultimately, executive editor.

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, John M. Owen IV – author of the new book The Ecology of Nations. American Democracy in a Fragile World Order – explains what he means by co-evolution and the regime-power dilemma; shows how authoritarian rivals, such as China and Russia, have attempted to engineer their ecosystems; discusses the three historical ages of liberalism and what might replace the currently dominant form of open liberalism; and reflects on what the emergence of two rather separate but partly overlapping international ecosystems might imply for the future. John M. Owen IV is Amb. Henry J. and Mrs. Marion R. Taylor Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture and the Miller Center for Public Affairs.  The Ecology of Nations. American Democracy in a Fragile World Order has been published by Yale University Press.

Among the challengers to liberal democracy in Europe, we can count populists, autocrats, and the increasingly often mentioned illiberals. But who are they and what is illiberalism? How does it relate to populism? Can illiberals be democrats at all? What are the policy implications of having illiberal politicians, especially of the radical right, in power in the EU? This interview explores these questions with Professor Cas Mudde. It covers various issues at the intersection of academic and policy research on populism, illiberalism, democracy, and the radical right. It discusses whether the growing body of literature on illiberalism addresses something that is fundamentally new on the global political agenda, how this literature relates to academic research on populism, and if illiberalism and democracy are reconcilable against the backdrop of a global trend of autocratization, which many scholars of democracy have noted, and which is often attributed to illiberal and populist leaders. Furthermore, the conversation sets out to understand how the recent election outcomes in Slovakia and Poland fit into the aforementioned trend and also predict what is in store for European democracies in the near future as illiberal actors of the radical right are readying themselves for the next European parliamentary elections in June 2024. Cas Mudde is a professor of international affairs and a distinguished research professor at the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia. His academic research agenda centres around the question how liberal democracies can defend themselves against political challenges without undermining their core values. He has published widely on uncivil society, democratization, Euroskepticism, extremism, and the practices of political parties, especially those of far-right and populist inclinations.

Leila Farsakh on Settler Colonial Violence and the Palestinian Path to Emancipation. In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Leila Farsakh explains what has been truly novel and devastating about the conflict in Palestine and Israel this fall; discusses how the Israeli occupation has evolved in recent decades and what major consequences that has had; clarifies why she pleads for prioritizing citizenship rights for Palestinians over the partition paradigm of the last century; reflects on how Palestinian voices and the Palestinian struggle have acquired greater resonance in the United States; and sketches how a resolution based on equality might be achieved. Leila Farsakh is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is a widely recognized expert on Middle East politics, on comparative politics, and on the politics of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Her recent books include Rethinking Statehood in Palestine: Self-Determination and Decolonization Beyond Partition (as editor) and The Arab and Jewish Questions: Geographies of Engagement in Palestine and Beyond (as co-editor with Bashir Bashir).

Despite the Polish opposition election victory in the 15 October elections on 27 November President Duda swore in the Law and Justice Party ahead of a confidence vote that the incumbents seem set inevitably to lose. In this latest Rule of Law podcast, Oliver Garner and Daniel Hegedüs discuss the implications of the election for Central and Eastern Europe. Daniel is a German Marshall Fund fellow with expertise in populism and democratic backsliding and the foreign affairs of the Visegrad countries.

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Miroslav Wlachovský – Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia in the recent caretaker cabinet headed by Ľudovít Ódor – discusses Slovakia’s role in the EU and his priorities while in office; analyses the recent Slovak elections and the potential consequences its outcome will have in terms of the country’s foreign policy; and reflects on the relationship between Slovakia and Hungary as well as the future of the Visegrad Four.

In this conversation with RevDem editor Kasia Krzyżanowska, Massimo Fichera talks about the need to include the future when designing EU constitutional architecture, criticises the economic components’ dominance over the European integration process, and explains his idea of communal constitutionalism as a remedy to presentism of constitutional theories.

In this conversation with RevDem assistant editor Lorena Drakula, Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser sheds light on the historical context, ideological characteristics, and the consequential impact of the recent far-right success in Latin America, encompassing prominent figures from José Antonio Kast and Jair Bolsonaro to Nayib Bukele and  Javier Milei. Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser is a professor at the Institute of Political Science at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, an associate researcher at the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies, and the Director of the Laboratory for the Study of the Far Right.

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Peter Beinart discusses forms of ethical and unethical Palestinian resistance and the complex relationship between condemning and contextualizing mass crimes; explains why he thinks ongoing Israeli military efforts are not only morally wrong but also likely to prove counterproductive; points to ways that Israeli Jews and Palestinians may be brought together now to recognize their intertwined tragedies – and reflects on how he balances his Jewish familial obligations and the universalistic ethical message about the dignity of all people in the current moment of despair and rage. Peter Beinart is professor of journalism and political science at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York and editor-at-large at Jewish Currents. He also runs the Substack The Beinart Notebook.

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Darrin M. McMahon – author of the new book Equality: The History of an Elusive Idea – discusses his approach to the intellectual history of equality on the longue durée and explains why we shouldn’t think of this history as a triumphant march of progress; highlights the tensions between difference and sameness and explores the changing relationship between liberty and equality; and reflects on the globalization of our concern with equality – and our human ambivalence towards this resilient idea.  Darrin M. McMahon is a historian, author, and public speaker who acts as the Mary Brinsmead Wheelock Professor of History at Dartmouth College. He is the author of three previous books respectively titled Enemies of the Enlightenment: The French Counter-Enlightenment and the Making of Modernity (2001); Happiness: A History (2006); and Divine Fury: A History of Genius (2013). He is also the editor or co-editor of the volumes Rethinking Modern European Intellectual History (2013); Genealogies of Genius (2017); and History and Human Flourishing (2022). Equality: The History of an Elusive Idea is published by Basic Books.