Episode 5: Democracy in America

Hosts Georgios Giannakopoulos and Dina Gusejnova in discussion with Jeanne Morefield, Senior Lecturer in political theory at the University of Birmingham, Co-President of the Association for Political Theory and fellow at the Quincy institute for responsible statecraft Sam Moyn, Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School and Professor of History at Yale University. Charles Smith, Distinguished Professor of Playwriting, Ohio University Presidential Research Scholar in the Arts and Humanities, and head of the Professional Playwriting Program at Ohio University The American election has created a closely watched spectacle across the world. The interests of those watching are as widely divergent as those of the American electorate itself. For the past four years, the words and gestures coming from America’s now departing president have made for a horrible show of dehumanisation, farce, and contempt. And yet the election is also a passing moment in a much more protracted crisis revolving around the state of American democracy as well as its status worldwide. Music by Buster Ezell, 'Bottle up and go' (1941), from the Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/item/ftvbib000036/ Extracts from the play by Charles Smith, Knock me a Kiss, productions at Jubilee Theatre in Fort Worth, TX (2013).