S2E5: What keeps democ­ra­cies alive?

Over the series, our focus has often been on the seri­ous chal­lenges that democ­ra­cies face all over the world today. We have also high­light­ed how they can and are degen­er­at­ing and mor­ph­ing into author­i­tar­i­an­ism. But this episode flips the per­spec­tive to under­stand how we can fos­ter and nur­ture demo­c­ra­t­ic spaces and prac­tices in our soci­eties. Pro­fes­sor Till Van Rah­den (Uni­ver­sité de Mon­tréal) dis­cuss­es why we should move beyond an insti­tu­tion­al view of democ­ra­cy as a sys­tem of gov­ern­ment. We explore with him how democ­ra­cy is a frag­ile way of life that needs con­stant care and how it can be protected.