If there's one thing that people across the political spectrum can agree on, it's a sense of discontent with the current state of American politics. This week, we explore the origins of that discontent and why it's damaging to democracy. Our guest is Matthew Rhodes-Purdy, an assistant professor of political science at Clemson University and one of the authors of The Age of Discontent: Populism, Extremism, and Conspiracy Theories in Contemporary Democracies.
Rhodes-Purdy and his co-authors argue that the most successful populist and extremist movements of the past 20 years have focused largely on cultural grievances, rather than on economic discontent. The book outlines what they describe as the troubling implications of discontent on the long-term compatibility of liberal democracy and free-market neoliberalism.
Looking at case studies from around the world, the authors imply that democratic states must renew their commitment to social regulation of markets and to serve as conduits for citizen voice for democracy and market economies are to survive.
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Public schools, not government schools
Reforming criminal justice from the inside out
Laboratories of restricting democracy
Danielle Allen on achieving democracy's ideals
Reimagining citizenship in a consumer world
Understanding — and addressing — domestic terrorism
Anne Applebaum on why democracy is not inevitable
The long road to a multiracial democracy
A path forward for social media and democracy
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Direct democracy's dark side
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Extreme maps, extreme politics
American democracy's violent disruption
What neoliberalism left behind [rebroadcast]
How conspiracies are damaging democracy [rebroadcast]
Did democracy work in 2020?
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