I think one of the greatest barriers to reform is thinking that reform is impossible.Daniel ZiblattAccess Bonus Episodes on PatreonMake a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox.A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.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 HighlightsIntroduction - 0:38American Democracy - 3:25A Multi-Racial Democracy - 16:36Conservatism and Democracy - 22:34The Republican Party and Authoritarianism - 35:37Key LinksTyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point by Steven Levitsky and Daniel ZiblattHow Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel ZiblattConservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy by Daniel ZiblattDemocracy Paradox PodcastStephan Haggard and Robert Kaufman on Democratic BackslidingSteven Levitsky and Lucan Way on the Durable Authoritarianism of Revolutionary RegimesMore Episodes from the PodcastMore InformationDemocracy GroupApes of the State created all MusicEmail the show at [email protected] on Twitter @DemParadox, Facebook, Instagram @democracyparadoxpodcast100 Books on DemocracySupport the show

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 ChaAccess Bonus Episodes on PatreonMake a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox.A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.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 HighlightsIntroduction - 0:45Korea as a People and a Place - 2:25Korean War and its Aftermath - 11:44Democracy - 23:23Is Reconciliation Possible? - 40:55Key LinksKorea: A New History of South and North by Victor Cha and Ramon Pacheco PardoVictor Cha at the Center for Strategic & International StudiesRamon Pacheco Pardo at King's College LondonDemocracy Paradox PodcastDeng Xiaoping is Not Who You Think He is. Joseph Torigian on Leadership Transitions in China and the Soviet UnionHal Brands Thinks China is a Declining Power… Here’s Why that’s a ProblemMore Episodes from the PodcastMore InformationDemocracy GroupApes of the State created all MusicEmail the show at [email protected] on Twitter @DemParadox, Facebook, Instagram @democracyparadoxpodcast100 Books on DemocracySupport the show

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 TorigianAccess Bonus Episodes on PatreonMake a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox.A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.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 HighlightsIntroduction - 0:48Deng Xiaoping and Hua Guofeng - 2:33Khrushchev Consolidates Power - 16:16Will History Repeat? - 30:11Connections to Contemporary China - 38:31Key LinksPrestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao by Joseph TorigianHarvard History LabLearn more about Joseph TorigianDemocracy Paradox PodcastHal Brands Thinks China is a Declining Power… Here’s Why that’s a ProblemAnne Applebaum on Autocracy, IncMore Episodes from the PodcastMore InformationDemocracy GroupApes of the State created all MusicEmail the show at [email protected] on Twitter @DemParadox, Facebook, Instagram @democracyparadoxpodcast100 Books on DemocracySupport the show

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 KaplanAccess Bonus Episodes on PatreonMake a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox.A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.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 HighlightsIntroduction - 0:43What is the Greater Middle East? - 3:13Developing Political Institutions - 14:55Turkey and Iran - 26:40Iraq - 38:15Key LinksThe Loom of Time: Between Empire and Anarchy, from the Mediterranean to China by Robert KaplanForeign Policy Research InstituteThe Writings of Robert Kaplan at The AtlanticDemocracy Paradox PodcastBerk 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 IraqMore Episodes from the PodcastMore InformationDemocracy GroupApes of the State created all MusicEmail the show at [email protected] on Twitter @DemParadox, Facebook, Instagram @democracyparadoxpodcast100 Books on DemocracySupport the show

India should be understood as a test case of democracy outside the Western world.Rahul VermaAccess Bonus Episodes on PatreonMake a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox.A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.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 HighlightsIntroduction - 0:44India's Democracy Paradox - 2:24Reconciling Illiberalism - 15:54Sources of Indian Democratic Deficits - 20:02Overstating and Understating Indian Democracy - 30:50Key Links"The Exaggerated Death of Indian Democracy" in Journal of Democracy by Rahul VermaCentre for Policy Research Follow Rahul Verma on Twitter @rahul_tvermaDemocracy Paradox PodcastAshutosh Varshney on India. Democracy in Hard PlacesChristophe Jaffrelot on Narendra Modi and Hindu NationalismMore Episodes from the PodcastMore InformationDemocracy GroupApes of the State created all MusicEmail the show at [email protected] on Twitter @DemParadox, Facebook, Instagram @democracyparadoxpodcast100 Books on DemocracySupport the show