S06E01:Thomas Carothers on Demo­c­ra­t­ic Back­slid­ing in a Com­par­a­tive Perspective

What are the caus­es and con­se­quences of demo­c­ra­t­ic decline world­wide over the course of the last two decades? Has democ­ra­cy in the Unit­ed States recent­ly drift­ed more towards demo­c­ra­t­ic back­slid­ing or did the results of the 2022 midterm elec­tions inspire hope in the reversibil­i­ty of demo­c­ra­t­ic degen­er­a­tion in the US? What effect does this trend have on the sta­bil­i­ty of the inter­na­tion­al order, on the future of lib­er­al democ­ra­cy more large­ly, and not least, on the pro­mo­tion of democ­ra­cy abroad? How do we clas­si­fy dif­fer­ent types of demo­c­ra­t­ic back­slid­ing and are there insti­tu­tion­al and orga­ni­za­tion­al respons­es to these? Why have cul­tur­al issues become the sym­bol­ic bat­tle­ground today for so many oppo­nents of lib­er­al democracy?

Guests fea­tured in this episode:

Thomas Carothers, is the Har­vey V Fein­berg Chair for Democ­ra­cy Stud­ies and Co-direc­tor of the Democ­ra­cy, Con­flict, and Gov­er­nance Pro­gram at the Carnegie Endow­ment for Inter­na­tion­al Peace. Trained as a lawyer, he served in the office of the legal advi­sor of the U.S. State Depart­ment before join­ing The Carnegie Endow­ment for Inter­na­tion­al Peace. 

He is an expert on democ­ra­cy and inter­na­tion­al sup­port for democ­ra­cy pro­mo­tion abroad for human rights, gov­er­nance, the rule of law, and civ­il soci­ety. Tom has pub­lished sev­er­al crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed books, includ­ing  Fund­ing Virtue: Civ­il Soci­ety and Democ­ra­cy Pro­mo­tion, Pro­mot­ing the Rule of Law Abroad, and most recent­ly Democ­ra­cies Divid­ed: The Glob­al Chal­lenge of Polit­i­cal Polar­iza­tion.

He’s also been a vis­it­ing mem­ber at the CEU, and is a mem­ber of the advi­so­ry board of our Democ­ra­cy Insti­tute in Budapest.