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Comparative Democracy Podcasts

ByRikki Dean

To celebrate the new English-language MA in Comparative Democracy at Goethe University Frankfurt, Hanna Pfeifer, Julian Garritzmann and I took over the Talk Social Science To Me Podcast and produced three episodes on key themes in the field. All episodes are now available on your favourite podcast provider or click on the links below.


The three episodes each cover a different theme. Episode 1 focuses on how to conceptualize democracy, Episode 2 looks at the relationship between inequality and democracy and Episode 3 asks whether foreign policy should be made more democratic. Each episode features an interview with leading researchers, followed by a discussion between Hanna, Julian and I.

Episode 1: Conceptualizing Democracy
What is democracy? And how can we measure it if we cannot agree on what it is? In this episode I interview Carl Knutsen about his work on the Varieties of Democracy (V-DEM) Project and how they approach the task, as well as talking to Brigitte Geissel about her new book that argues it should be citizens who define what democracy is.


Episode 2: Democracy and Inequality
In Episode 2 Julian Garritzmann interviews Marius Busemeyer and asks him why should we care about inequality in a democracy, as well as why do such high-levels of inequality persist in a democracy despite a seeming public preference for more equality.


Episode 3: Democracy and Foreign Policy
In the final episode Hanna Pfeifer interviews Gunther Hellmann about the relationship between democracy and foreign policy and examines the recent participatory turn in German foreign policy making.

Thanks go to Friederike Alm and Vincente Pons Marti at Talk Social Science to Me for their technical support in putting together the podcasts.

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