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Democracy Paradox — Government
Democracy Paradox

Is it possible for a democracy to govern undemocratically? Can the people elect an undemocratic leader? Is it possible for democracy to bring about authoritarianism? And if so, what does this say about democracy? My name is Justin Kempf. Every week I talk to the brightest minds on subjects like international relations, political theory, and history to explore democracy from every conceivable angle. Topics like civil resistance, authoritarian successor parties, and the autocratic middle class challenge our ideas about democracy. Join me as we unravel new topics every week.

Copyright: © 2026 Democracy Paradox

Latest Episodes:

Cenk Uygur is Running an Unorthodox Campaign for President Oct 24, 2023

Show notes

You could take that populism and turn it negative, which often happens... But populism could also be a wonderful thing where you're actually appealing to what the voters want instead of what the powerful want.

Cenk Uygur
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A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.
Cenk Uygur is a host of the show The Young Turks and the founder, president, and CEO of its parent company TYT. He is a Democratic Party candidate for President of the United States and the author of Justice Is Coming: How Progressives Are Going to Take Over the Country and America Is Going to Love It.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:42
Cenk's Presidential Campaign - 2:49
Progressive Issues - 26:56
Populism - 40:28
Polarization - 49:17

Key Links
Justice Is Coming: How Progressives Are Going to Take Over the Country and America Is Going to Love It by Cenk Uygur
Support Cenk Uygur's campaign at cenkforamerica.com
Check out The Young Turks and other TYT programs at tyt.com
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Heather Cox Richardson on History, Conservatism, and the Awakening of American Democracy
Daniel Ziblatt on American Democracy, the Republican Party, and the Tyranny of the Minority
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Apes of the State created all Music
Email the show at jkempf@democracyparadox.com
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100 Books on Democracy

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Shadi Hamid on Democracy, Liberalism, and the Middle East Oct 17, 2023

Show notes

Autocracy as we understand it today is a modern creation. I think there we see very few successful examples of modern autocracies that are able to sustain themselves.

Shadi Hamid
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Shadi Hamid is a columnist and member of the Editorial Board at The Washington Post. He is also a research professor of Islamic studies at Fuller Seminary and the co-host of the podcast Wisdom of Crowds. His most recent book is The Problem of Democracy: America, the Middle East, and the Rise and Fall of an Idea.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:32
The Problem of Democracy - 2:25
Islamism - 5:51
Turkey - 22:47
Autocratic Rulers - 32:20

Key Links

The Problem of Democracy: America, the Middle East, and the Rise and Fall of an Idea by Shadi Hamid
Follow Shadi Hamid on Twitter @shadihamid
Wisdom of Crowds
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Robert Kaplan on the Politics of the Past and Future of the Greater Middle East
Steven Simon on American Foreign Policy in the Middle East including Iran and the Wars in Iraq
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Apes of the State created all Music
Email the show at jkempf@democracyparadox.com
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100 Books on Democracy

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Branko Milanovic on Different Visions of Inequality Oct 10, 2023

Show notes

Writing a book like that makes you really think brutally about the past. It makes you really think about the current time and also how the future would look at you.

Branko Milanovic
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Branko Milanovic is a Research Professor at the City University of New York and a Senior Scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality. He served as the lead economist in the World Bank’s Research Department for almost 20 years. His most recent book is Visions of Inequality: From the French Revolution to the End of the Cold War.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:31
Why Economic Inequality - 2:53
Ideas Before 1820 - 13:26
Marx and Socialism - 19:52
Piketty and Modern Thought - 40:17

Key Links
Visions of Inequality: From the French Revolution to the End of the Cold Warby Branko Milanovic
globalinequality blog by Branko Milanovic
Follow Branko Milanovic on X @BrankoMilan
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Thomas Piketty on Equality
Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson on the Plutocratic Populism of the Republican Party
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Apes of the State created all Music
Email the show at jkempf@democracyparadox.com
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100 Books on Democracy

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Yascha Mounk Warns Against a Misguided New Ideology Oct 03, 2023

Show notes

I really do think that what we've witnessed over the last decades is the emergence of a new ideology that is meaningfully distinct... I think it really is meaningfully distinct from other forms of what is meant to be left wing in the past from other ideological traditions.

Yascha Mounk
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Yascha Mounk is a Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University. He’s a writer for The Atlantic, founder of the online magazine Persuassion, and host of the podcast The Good Fight. He is the author of The People vs Democracy, The Great Experiment, and The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:51
Values and Beliefs - 3:15
Higher Education - 13:56
Identity - 22:34
Differences from Marxism - 37:21

Key Links
The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Timeby Yascha Mounk
The Great Experiment: How to Make Diverse Democracies Work by Yascha Mounk
The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It by Yascha Mounk
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Yascha Mounk on the Great Experiment of Diverse Democracies
Francis Fukuyama Responds to Liberalism’s Discontents
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Apes of the State created all Music
Email the show at jkempf@democracyparadox.com
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100 Books on Democracy

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Heather Cox Richardson on History, Conservatism, and the Awakening of American Democracy Sep 26, 2023

Show notes

It would be a lovely thing if before I die, I get to see a younger generation reclaim democracy and rebuild it in a new, more expansive way.

Heather Cox Richardson
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Heather Cox Richardson is a Professor of History at Boston College. Her daily newsletter Letters from an American is read by millions. She has a new book out as of today called Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:46
Patriotism and Conservatism - 3:15
The Liberal Consensus - 14:42
Awakening Democracy - 39:07
Trump - 51:41

Key Links
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson
Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson
Follow Heather Cox Richardson on Twitter @HC_Richardson
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Daniel Ziblatt on American Democracy, the Republican Party, and the Tyranny of the Minority
Joseph Fishkin on the Constitution, American History, and Economic Inequality
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Apes of the State created all Music
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100 Books on Democracy

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Daniel Ziblatt on American Democracy, the Republican Party, and the Tyranny of the Minority Sep 19, 2023

Show notes

I think one of the greatest barriers to reform is thinking that reform is impossible.

Daniel Ziblatt
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Daniel Ziblatt is the Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and director of the Transformations of Democracy group at Berlin's Social Science Center. He is the coauthor with Steven Levitsky of How Democracies Dieand a new book The Tyranny of the Minority and the author of Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:38
American Democracy - 3:25
A Multi-Racial Democracy - 16:36
Conservatism and Democracy - 22:34
The Republican Party and Authoritarianism - 35:37

Key Links
Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracyby Daniel Ziblatt
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Stephan Haggard and Robert Kaufman on Democratic Backsliding
Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way on the Durable Authoritarianism of Revolutionary Regimes
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Democracy Group
Apes of the State created all Music
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Is Reunification Still Possible? Victor Cha and Ramon Pacheco Pardo on Korea Sep 12, 2023

Show notes

North Korea is stable up until the day it's not... The day that it collapses, there'll be a lot of people out there who will say this was inevitable.

Victor Cha
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Victor Cha is a professor of government at Georgetown University and holds the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is a former director for Asian Affairs at the White House National Security Council. Ramon Pacheco Pardo is a professor of international relations at King’s College London and the KF-VUB Korea Chair at Free University of Brussels. They are the authors of Korea: A New History of South and North.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:45
Korea as a People and a Place - 2:25
Korean War and its Aftermath - 11:44
Democracy - 23:23
Is Reconciliation Possible? - 40:55

Key Links
Korea: A New History of South and North by Victor Cha and Ramon Pacheco Pardo
Victor Cha at the Center for Strategic & International Studies
Ramon Pacheco Pardo at King's College London
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Deng Xiaoping is Not Who You Think He is. Joseph Torigian on Leadership Transitions in China and the Soviet Union
Hal Brands Thinks China is a Declining Power… Here’s Why that’s a Problem
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Democracy Group
Apes of the State created all Music
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Deng Xiaoping is Not Who You Think He is. Joseph Torigian on Leadership Transitions in China and the Soviet Unio Sep 05, 2023

Show notes

People still think of Chinese history as this two-line struggle because that's the story the Chinese tell. But everything from Mao Zedong's relationship to Liu Shaoqi to anything that happened during the 1980s, it was not a problem of competing policy platforms. It was a problem of getting the politics of your relationship with the top leader right when it was hard to guess what they were thinking and they were changing their mind and they were suspicious of you.

Joseph Torigian
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Joseph Torigian is a Research Fellow at the Harvard History Lab. Previously he was an assistant professor at the School of International Service at American University in Washington and a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center. He is the author of Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:48
Deng Xiaoping and Hua Guofeng - 2:33
Khrushchev Consolidates Power - 16:16
Will History Repeat? - 30:11
Connections to Contemporary China - 38:31

Key Links
Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao by Joseph Torigian
Harvard History Lab
Learn more about Joseph Torigian
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Hal Brands Thinks China is a Declining Power… Here’s Why that’s a Problem
Anne Applebaum on Autocracy, Inc
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Democracy Group
Apes of the State created all Music
Email the show at jkempf@democracyparadox.com
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100 Books on Democracy

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Robert Kaplan on the Politics of the Past and Future of the Greater Middle East Aug 29, 2023

Show notes

Great developments by nature are not linear. Things just don't always continue as they have been. That's why this idea that the Arab Spring came, it went, it happened, it didn't work, therefore the Middle East will always remain an autocracy - that's linear thinking. Great events are great precisely because they're not linear.

Robert Kaplan
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Robert reported on foreign policy for The Atlantic for three decades and is currently the Robert Strausz-Hupé Chair in Geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. His most recent book is The Loom of Time: Between Empire and Anarchy, from the Mediterranean to China.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:43
What is the Greater Middle East? - 3:13
Developing Political Institutions - 14:55
Turkey and Iran - 26:40
Iraq - 38:15

Key Links
The Loom of Time: Between Empire and Anarchy, from the Mediterranean to Chinaby Robert Kaplan
Foreign Policy Research Institute
The Writings of Robert Kaplan at The Atlantic
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Berk Esen and Sebnem Gumuscu on the Disappointing Elections in Turkey… or How Democratic (or Autocratic) is Turkey Really?
Steven Simon on American Foreign Policy in the Middle East including Iran and the Wars in Iraq
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Democracy Group
Apes of the State created all Music
Email the show at jkempf@democracyparadox.com
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100 Books on Democracy

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Is India Still a Democracy? Rahul Verma Emphatically Says Yes Aug 22, 2023

Show notes

India should be understood as a test case of democracy outside the Western world.

Rahul Verma
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Rahul Verma is a fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. He is also Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, Ashoka University. Recently, he wrote “The Exaggerated Death of Indian Democracy” in the recent Journal of Democracy.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:44
India's Democracy Paradox - 2:24
Reconciling Illiberalism - 15:54
Sources of Indian Democratic Deficits - 20:02
Overstating and Understating Indian Democracy - 30:50

Key Links
"The Exaggerated Death of Indian Democracy" in Journal of Democracy by Rahul Verma
Centre for Policy Research
Follow Rahul Verma on Twitter @rahul_tverma
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Ashutosh Varshney on India. Democracy in Hard Places
Christophe Jaffrelot on Narendra Modi and Hindu Nationalism
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Democracy Group
Apes of the State created all Music
Email the show at jkempf@democracyparadox.com
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100 Books on Democracy

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