Democracy Paradox

The irony of democratic backsliding is a lot of these things are pitched to people and understood by people as actually pro-democratic.
Noam Lupu
Support for democracy is rising across the Americas after more than a decade of decline, but what kind of democracy do citizens actually want? Noam Lupu, director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy and LAPOP Lab, joins Justin Kempf to discuss findings from the latest AmericasBarometer and Pulse of Democracy. They explore why better economic and security conditions may be strengthening democratic support, even as distrust of political institutions persists; how citizens can embrace democracy while supporting illiberal leaders; and what attitudes toward representation, inequality, generational change, and political polarization reveal about the future of democracy across the region.
Noam Lupu is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University and Director of the Center for Global Democracy and LAPOP Lab. 
The Democracy Paradox is made in partnership with the Kellogg Institute of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. 
Read the full transcript here.
Key Highlights
Introduction - 0:20
Is Democracy Delivering? - 2:36
The Illiberal Bargain - 9:56
The Outliers: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay - 19:56
Whose Democracy Is It? - 29:31
Links
Learn more about Noam Lupu.
Learn more about the AmericasBarometer survey. 
Read the Pulse of Democracy 2026 report. 
Learn more about the Kellogg Institute.
Apes of the State created all Music
Email comments or questions to jkempf@democracyparadox.com
Support the show

There was an assumption that influence could only run one direction... but influence could run the other direction as well.
Alexander Cooley
Authoritarian governments are exercising growing influence not only within their own borders but across the institutions, markets, and organizations that shape global life. Alexander Cooley and Alexander Dukalskis, authors of Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics, join Justin Kempf to examine how authoritarian states have learned to reshape the liberal international order for illiberal ends. They discuss cooperation among autocracies, the growing economic power behind authoritarian influence, pressure on corporations and universities, and what these changes mean for liberalism, democracy, and the future of global governance.
Alexander Cooley is the Claire Tow Professor of Political Science and Vice Provost for Research and Academic Centers at Barnard College, Columbia University. Alexander Dukalskis associate professor in the School of Politics & International Relations at University College Dublin. They are the authors of the recent book Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics.  
The Democracy Paradox is made in partnership with the Kellogg Institute of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. 
Read the full transcript here.
Key Highlights
Introduction - 0:20
Liberalism, Not Democracy - 3:18
The Autocratic Axis -  15:01
Profits Over Principles - 28:20
What Comes After Liberalism? - 38:47
Links
Learn more about Alexander Cooley.
Learn more about Alexander Dukalskis.
Learn more about their book Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics (Oxford University Press, 2026)
Learn more about the Kellogg Institute
Apes of the State created all Music
Email comments or questions to jkempf@democracyparadox.com
Support the show

We barely disagree with each other, but we can't stand one another's party. 
Suzanne Mettler
Suzanne Mettler is the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University. She is the coauthor of Four Threats with Robert Lieberman and Rural Versus Urban: The Growing Divide that Threatens Democracy coauthored with Trevor Brown. 
The Democracy Paradox is made in partnership with the Kellogg Institute of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. 
Read the full transcript here.
Key Highlights
Introduction - 0:20
From a 2-Point Gap to a 20-Point Chasm - 3:10
The NAFTA Betrayal Democrats Never Escaped - 15:01
Why Are You Kowtowing to These Elites? - 23:31
Power Without Prosperity - 34:35
Links
Read the book Rural Versus Urban: The Growing Divide That Threatens Democracy
Learn more about Suzanne Mettler
Learn more about the Kellogg Institute
Apes of the State created all Music
Email comments or questions to jkempf@democracyparadox.com

Support the show

I'm by nature optimistic, but am extremely worried because of the structural moment we live in.
Rachel Beatty Riedl
Political scientist Rachel Beatty Riedl joins host Justin Kempf to examine how extreme economic inequality and the growing power of transnational elites have contributed to democratic backsliding. Drawing on experiences from Africa and other third-wave democracies, Riedl explains how concentrated wealth can weaken states, distort political competition, and prevent citizens’ preferences from being represented equally in government.
Rachel Beatty Riedl is a Professor in the Brooks School of Public Policy and in the Department of Government at Cornell University and the Peggy J. Koenig ’78 Director of the Cornell Center on Democracy. She is the coeditor of Global Challenges to Democracy: Comparative Perspectives on Backsliding, Autocracy, and Resilience with Valerie Bunce, Tom Pepinsky, and Ken Roberts and the author of many articles including “Neoliberalism and the Third Wave" in the Journal of Democracy. 
The Democracy Paradox is made in partnership with the Kellogg Institute of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. 
Read the full transcript here.
Key Highlights
Introduction - 0:20
The Third Wave's Broken Bargain - 4:16
Elites Without Borders - 14:50
The Reagan Test - 24:35
The Rocky Road Ahead - 34:26
Links
Learn more about the Cornell Center on Democracy 
Read the book Global Challenges to Democracy: Comparative Perspectives on Backsliding, Autocracy, and Resilience
Read her article “Neoliberalism and the Third Wave" in the Journal of Democracy
Learn more about Rachel Beatty Riedl.
Learn more about the Kellogg Institute
Apes of the State created all Music
Email comments or questions to jkempf@democracyparadox.com
Support the show

You can only get to the point of restoring democratic institutions if you win the last election with such a huge majority that you really have the public with you as you make radical change.
Kim Lane Scheppele
 Kim Lane Scheppele is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Some of her articles include “Autocratic Legalism”, “The Rule of Law and the Frankenstate: Why Government Checklists Do Not Work”, “How Viktor Orbán Wins," and most recently “Can Péter Magyar Restore Hungary's Democracy?” 
 The Democracy Paradox is made in partnership with the Kellogg Institute of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. 
Read the full transcript here.
Key Highlights
Introduction - 0:20
Magyar's Playbook - 3:24
A Party Without a Party - 18:26
Breaking the Rules to Save Democracy - 30:48
Looking to the Future Instead of History - 44:29
Links
Learn more about Kim Lane Scheppele
Read her Journal of Democracy article “Can Péter Magyar Restore Hungary's Democracy?”
Learn more about the Kellogg Institute.
Apes of the State created all Music
Email comments or questions to jkempf@democracyparadox.com
Support the show