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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:

Isabel Kershner on Israel and its Divisions Jun 06, 2023

Show notes

It's very hard to understand what's happening today without looking at the roots of all these divisions and at the interests of the different communities and their long-held resentments against the establishment of the country.

Isabel Kershner
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Isabel Kershner is a reporter at The New York Times and the author of a new book called The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel's Battle for Its Inner Soul.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:37
Mizrahi and Askenazi - 5:31
Immigration - 18:08
Ultra-Orthodox - 28:12
Netanyahu's Judiciary Proposal - 39:27

Key Links
The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel's Battle for Its Inner Soul by Isabel Kershner
Read more from Isabel Kershner at The New York Times
Follow Isabel Kershner on Twitter @IKershner
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Steven Simon on American Foreign Policy in the Middle East including Iran and the Wars in Iraq
Yascha Mounk on the Great Experiment of Diverse Democracies
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Democracy Group
Apes of the State created all Music
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100 Books on Democracy

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Cole Bunzel on Wahhābism May 30, 2023

Show notes

The Jihadis today root themselves theologically and ideologically in a particular movement that is exclusivist, that is militant, that is activist, and that is the movement known as Wahhābism.

Cole Bunzel
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Cole Bunzel is a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the editor of the blog Jihadica. He is the author of the book Wahhābism: The History of a Militant Islamic Movement.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:33
Relevance and Overview - 2:43
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab - 14:15
Appeal to Adherents - 26:14
Legacy - 36:16

Key Links
Wahhābism: The History of a Militant Islamic Movement by Cole Bunzel
Read the Jihadica Blog
Learn more about Cole Bunzel
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Marsin Alshamary on Iraq’s Struggle for Democracy
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
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Daron Acemoglu on Technology and the Struggle for Shared Prosperity May 23, 2023

Show notes

If you have this model of AI, which is geniuses design machines and those machines or algorithms are going to scoop up all the data and they're going to make better decisions for you. That's fundamentally anti-democratic.

Daron Acemoglu
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Daron Acemoglu is the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT. He is coauthor (with James A. Robinson) of The Narrow Corridor, Why Nations Fail, and The Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. His latest book (with Simon Johnson) is Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:33
Technology and Progress - 2:06
Productivity - 14:01
Artificial Intelligence - 24:42
Shared Prosperity - 34:31

Key Links
Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
Learn more about Daron Acemoglu
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Jamie Susskind Explains How to Use Republican Ideals to Govern Technology
Samuel Woolley on Bots, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Propaganda
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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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Serhii Plokhy on the Russo-Ukrainian War May 16, 2023

Show notes

The fact that Ukraine can be a democracy.... presents a threat to the authoritarian regimes in Moscow and Minsk of the sort that NATO would never actually present.

Serhii Plokhy
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Serhii Plokhy is a Professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University and the Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. He’s written many books including The Gates of Europe, Nuclear Folly, and Atoms to Ashes. His most recent book is The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:37
Ukrainian Political Identity - 2:39
Background on the War - 18:31
Causes of the War - 26:22
Nuclear Power in a War - 36:06

Key Links
The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History by Serhii Plokhy
Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters by Serhii Plokhy
Learn more about the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
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Olga Onuch and Henry Hale Describe the Zelensky Effect
Michael McFaul and Robert Person on Putin, Russia, and the War in Ukraine
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Democracy Group
Apes of the State created all Music
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Anne Applebaum on Autocracy, Inc May 09, 2023

Show notes

We are at a moment of very, very high risk and I'm not sure that people really know that or understand it, or if they do, if they care.

Anne Applebaum
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Anne Applebaum is a staff writer at The Atlantic and a Pulitzer-prize winning historian. Some of her books include Gulag: A History, Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine, and most recently Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism. She recently gave the Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture titled "Autocracy, Inc."
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:42
What is Autocracy, Inc - 3:47
Democratic Response - 13:40
Appeal of Authoritarianism - 26:51
Thoughts on Poland - 32:26

Key Links
Watch Anne Applebaum's Lecture "Autocracy, Inc"
"The Autocrats are Winning" in The Atlantic by Anne Applebaum
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Francis Fukuyama Responds to Liberalism’s Discontents
Larry Diamond on Supporting Democracy in the World and at Home
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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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Marsin Alshamary on Iraq’s Struggle for Democracy May 02, 2023

Show notes

The thing that really astonishes me is that there's never any agency given to Iraqis, both during the war and the occupation, but also 20 years later. It always goes back to what the Americans did. There's a defeatism about Iraq's ability to do anything on its own and I think that's at the heart of why people can't see anything democratic in the country.
Marsin Alshamary
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A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.
Marsin Alshamary is a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative and nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Middle East Policy. She is the author of the paper "Iraq’s Struggle for Democracy" in the Journal of Democracy.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:41
Is Iraq a Democracy - 3:37
Iraqi Social Cleavages - 9:20
Iraqi Consociationalism - 26:33
Challenges to Democracy in Iraq - 36:55

Key Links
"Iraq’s Struggle for Democracy" in the Journal Democracy by Marsin Alshamary
Follow Marsin Alshamary on Twitter @MarsinRA
Learn more about Marsin Alshamary
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Steven Simon on American Foreign Policy in the Middle East including Iran and the Wars in Iraq
Larry Diamond on Supporting Democracy in the World and at Home
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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
Democracy Paradox is part of the Amazon Affiliates Program and earns commissions on items purchased from links to the Amazon website. All links are to recommended books discussed in the podcast or referenced in the blog.

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Jamie Susskind Explains How to Use Republican Ideals to Govern Technology Apr 25, 2023

Show notes

The problem in both cases is not Zuckerberg or Musk, but the idea of a Zuckerberg or Musk. The idea that, simply by virtue of owning and controlling a particular technology, someone wields arbitrary or unaccountable power which can touch every aspect of our liberty and our democracy.

Jamie Susskind
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A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.
Jamie Susskind is an author and barrister. He has held fellowships at Cambridge and Harvard Universities. His work is at the crossroads of technology, politics, and law. His most recent book is The Digital Republic: On Freedom and Democracy in the 21st Century.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:44
Challenges of Digital Technology - 3:18
Artificial Intelligence - 20:09
A Digital Republic - 40:27
Possible Solutions - 43:42

Key Links
The Digital Republic: On Freedom and Democracy in the 21st Century by Jamie Susskind
Follow Jamie Susskind on Twitter @jamiesusskind
Learn more about Jamie Susskind
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Samuel Woolley on Bots, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Propaganda
Ronald Deibert from Citizen Lab on Cyber Surveillance, Digital Subversion, and Transnational Repression
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Democracy Group
Apes of the State created all Music
Email the show at jkempf@democracyparadox.com
Follow on Twitter @DemParadox, Facebook, Instagram @democracyparadoxpodcast
100 Books on Democracy
Democracy Paradox is part of the Amazon Affiliates Program and earns commissions on items purchased from links to the Amazon website. All links are to recommended books discussed in the podcast or referenced in the blog.

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James Goldgeier on NATO, its Enlargement, and its Future Apr 18, 2023

Show notes

Who would be a better ally than Ukrainians? These are people who are fighting so bravely and have shown so much resilience. That's what we should want in an ally.

James Goldgeier
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James Goldgeier is a a Professor of International Relations at American University. He is also a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University's Center on International Security and Cooperation and a Visiting Fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. Recently, he is the coeditor with Joshua Itzkowitz Shifrinson of a new book called Evaluating NATO Enlargement: From Cold War Victory to the Russia-Ukraine War.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:35
Purpose of NATO - 2:37
NATO Expansion - 16:00
NATO and Democratization - 22:41
Future of NATO - 32:42

Key Links
Evaluating NATO Enlargement: From Cold War Victory to the Russia-Ukraine War edited by James Goldgeier and Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson
Power and Purpose: U.S. Policy toward Russia After the Cold Warby James Goldgeier and Michael McFaul
Learn more about James Goldgeier
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Robert Kagan Looks to American History to Explain Foreign Policy Today
Michael McFaul and Robert Person on Putin, Russia, and the War in Ukraine
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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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Steven Simon on American Foreign Policy in the Middle East including Iran and the Wars in Iraq Apr 11, 2023

Show notes

The Iraqis suffered so heavily and not just because of the 2003 war. The first war in 1991 inflicted terrible damage on Iraq and then the next 10 years of sanctions immiserated the populace and inflicted an especially punishing blow on Iraqi women and children.

Steven Simon
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Steven served on the National Security Council staff from 1994 to 1999 and again fro 2011 to 2012. Earlier he served in the State Department for fifteen years. He is currently a Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies and his most recent book is Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:43
Iran - 4:41
JCPOA - 22:58
The Iraq Wars - 27:19
Saudi Arabia - 32:57

Key Links
Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East by Steven Simon
Learn more about Steven Simon
"America's Great Satan" By Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon in Foreign Affairs
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Robert Kagan Looks to American History to Explain Foreign Policy Today
Zoltan Barany on the Ineffectiveness of the Gulf Militaries
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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
Democracy Paradox is part of the Amazon Affiliates Program and earns commissions on items purchased from links to the Amazon website. All links are to recommended books discussed in the podcast or referenced in the blog.

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Larry Bartels Says Democracy Erodes from the Top Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

Democracy is a much more complicated thing than we often give it credit for and certainly speaking dichotomously about democracy being in crisis or not is an oversimplification.

Larry Bartels
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Larry Bartels is the May Werthan Shayne Chair of Public Policy and Social Science at Vanderbilt University and a Co-Director for the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. His new book is called Democracy Erodes from the Top: Leaders, Citizens, and the Challenge of Populism in Europe.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:34
A Crisis of Democracy? 3:02
Populism 23:20
Political Restraint - 37:49
What is Democracy? 44:51

Key Links

Democracy Erodes from the Top: Leaders, Citizens, and the Challenge of Populism in Europe by Larry Bartels
Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government by Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels
Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions

Democracy Paradox Podcast
Martin Wolf on the Crisis of Democratic Capitalism
Jason Brownlee Believes We Underestimate Democratic Resilience
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Democracy Group
Apes of the State created all Music
Email the show at jkempf@democracyparadox.com
Follow on Twitter @DemParadox, Facebook, Instagram @democracyparadoxpodcast
100 Books on Democracy
Democracy Paradox is part of the Amazon Affiliates Program and earns commissions on items purchased from links to the Amazon website. All links are to recommended books discussed in the podcast or referenced in the blog.

Support the show

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