Democracy Paradox

Insightful conversations every week. A great resource for political scientists.

I find these podcasts to be perpetually confusing. Of the three I’ve listened to, I abandoned 2 in disgust and held one to the end. I think my issue is that the host has a perspective on some key words or ideas that are far afield of how Americans like me take them. A big one is in how he and some of his guests use the words liberal, liberty and conservative. To him, the root meaning is all about 18th century philosophy (which is how the British use it) while to me it’s about 21st century life. One is all about blind rationalism (without humanity). The other is about humanism, society and our better nature. Our American term Bleeding Heart Liberal, which refers to Jesus’ heart impassioned with love for humanity (i.e., the Sacred heart of Jesus). It is that love for humanity that is largely absent here leaving many of the conversations sounding more like drunk libertarian screeds than anything esle.

This is the perfect choice for anyone interested in learning more about the opportunities and challenges associated with democracy! Each episode is both informative and enjoyable.

Brings in good interviewees and conducts fine interviews. But the host has limited understanding of social science research, which was most on display in the rather shallow “democracy measures” discussion that did not touch on the basics of measurement validity.