Elbegdorj Tsakhia was president of Mongolia from 2009-2017 and played a key role in the country's transition from Communism to democracy after 1989. In this episode, he talks to Francis Fukuyama about the current challenges to democratic institutions in Mongolia. Former President of Mongolia Elbegdorj joined the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) in 2023 as Bernard and Susan Liautaud Visitin...
Feb 20, 2024•40 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Larry Diamond once again joins Francis Fukuyama for a year-end review to discuss the state of global democracy as 2023 draws to a close. Diamond also recounts his Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture, the 20th iteration of the annual lecture series named in honor of the famed political scientist and sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset, sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for Democracy, the Munk School at the University of Toronto, and the Canadian Embassy. Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton ...
Jan 05, 2024•54 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Historian and author Timothy Garton Ash joins Francis Fukuyama to talk about his new book, "Homelands: A Personal History of Europe," covering a period from 1945 to the present. Bookended by World War II and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ash discusses the efforts made by Europeans to contain the demons of the early 20th century and measures the degree of success they have had. Timothy Garton Ash is the author of eleven books of political writing or ‘history of the present’ which hav...
Oct 09, 2023•45 min•Season 3Ep. 1
This episode of Democracy IRL is a companion piece to Michael Bennon and Francis Fukuyama's essay, " China's Road to Ruin ," published in the September/October 2023 issue of Foreign Affairs . Here, Bennon and Fukuyama discuss how bad Chinese Belt and Road projects are, leading to financial crises in developing countries, and how international financial institutions like the IMF and EBRD are being asked to bail out dodgy Chinese loans. Michael Bennon is a Research Scholar at C...
Aug 22, 2023•46 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Jerry Kaplan is a renowned Silicon Valley veteran, computer scientist, and serial entrepreneur who has previously authored two books on AI, with a new one on generative AI forthcoming from Oxford University Press. In this episode, he joins Francis Fukuyama to discuss why he has suddenly decided that GAI is a genuinely big deal and a technology that will fundamentally change the ways we work and live. An artificial intelligence expert and innovator, Jerry Kaplan founded several Silicon Valley sta...
Aug 14, 2023•48 min•Season 2Ep. 9
On its 75th anniversary since independence, Israel's democracy has been both resilient and troubled over issues of national identity. Joining Francis Fukuyama in this episode to discuss is Professor Amichai Magen, a professor at the Lauder School of Government at Reichman University in Israel, currently in residence at Stanford University as a visiting scholar at CDDRL and the inaugural Visiting Fellow in Israel Studies at FSI. Amichai Magen is a Senior Lecturer (US Associate Professor), He...
Jul 21, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Political scientist Anna Gryzmala-Busse's new book disputes the scholarly consensus that war drove European state formation. She located the beginning of the state much earlier in Medieval history, with respect to institutions like law, parliaments, bureaucracy, and the like. In this episode, she joins Francis Fukuyama to discuss her new book on the religious origins of the European state. Anna Grzymała-Busse is a professor in the Department of Political Science , the Michelle and Kevin Dou...
Jun 06, 2023•25 min•Season 2Ep. 7
China has promised to reincorporate Taiwan, and the Chinese military, which has been growing very rapidly, is preparing for such a military contingency. Dr. Oriana Skylar Mastro, a Center Fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, joins Francis Fukuyama to talk about what such an invasion might look like and what US and Japanese responses to this threat should be. Oriana Skylar Mastro is a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International St...
May 25, 2023•28 min•Season 2Ep. 6
On March 21, 2023, Francis Fukuyama delivered the prestigious Donald C. Stone Lecture at the annual meeting of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), the leading academic association focusing on the study of the public sector. This special episode is a recording of his talk, “Valuing the Deep State,” in which he defends the importance of having a nonpartisan, expert, professional civil service for democratic governance. Using examples from the COVID pandemic and recent Supreme Co...
Mar 24, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Sheri Berman, author of Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancien Régime to the Present Day , is a professor of political science at Barnard College and a Visiting Scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law . In this episode, she joins Francis Fukuyama to explain why populism is more threatening to American democracy than it is in Europe, and why parties of the Left have been in long-term decline. Sheri Berman is a professor of political science at Barnard Co...
Mar 07, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Bruce Cain, professor of Political Science at Stanford and Director of the University's Bill Lane Center for the American West, joins Francis Fukuyama to talk about the new book he is writing on the political challenges of adapting to a changing climate in California and other western states. Bruce Cain is an expert in U.S. politics, particularly the politics of California and the American West. A pioneer in computer-assisted redistricting, he is a prominent scholar of elections, political ...
Feb 09, 2023•33 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Political sociologist Andrew G. Walder, the Denise O'Leary and Kent Thiry Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Senior Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, is a specialist on the sources of conflict, stability, and change in communist regimes and their successor states. Walder joins Francis Fukuyama to discuss China's economic slowdown, why it suffers from high inequality, and whether the country has peaked and is now facing long-term stagn...
Jan 24, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 2
To kick off our second season, Francis Fukuyama is once again joined by former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer. The two discuss the prospects for negotiation in Ukraine, the origins of the Russian invasion, and how the war may evolve this winter. Steven Pifer is a nonresident senior fellow in the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology, and the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, and an aff...
Jan 11, 2023•41 min•Season 2Ep. 1
As 2022 comes to a close, Francis Fukuyama sits down with his CDDRL colleague and democracy expert Larry Diamond for a wide-ranging conversation about the state of global democracy and the year's dramatic political developments in China, Iran, and the United States. Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education...
Dec 16, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Peidong Sun is a Distinguished Associate Professor of Arts and Science in China and Asia-Pacific Studies in the History Department at Cornell University. Previously, she was a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai and has written extensively on social issues in China. Professor Sun joins Francis Fukuyama to discuss the protests that have taken place across many cities in China over the past several weeks. Prompted by anger over the country's prolonged COVID lockdowns, these protests hav...
Dec 07, 2022•45 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Saeid Golkar has been writing and teaching about Iranian politics for the last decade since he was forced to leave the country. A 2009 alumnus of CDDRL's Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program, Saeid is an expert on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their Basij auxiliaries. Last month he joined Francis Fukuyama to discuss the nature and implications of the anti-regime protests that have rocked Iran since the killing of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. Saeid Golkar is an assistant profess...
Nov 23, 2022•43 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Eve Fairbanks is a brilliant journalist who has lived in South Africa for the past decade. Francis Fukuyama speaks to her about her new book, The Inheritors , in which she provides a fascinating account of the way that both blacks and whites in that country have adjusted—or not—to democracy over the past generation. South Africa has undergone a transformation much like that of the US since the Civil War, only compressed into a much shorter time period, and Fairbanks points to the enduring diffic...
Sep 15, 2022•45 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Yascha Mounk, Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University and founder of Persuasion joins Francis Fukuyama to talk about his new book, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure , which deals with ethnic and religious diversity in a democracy. Democracy IRL is produced by the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), part of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford Univers...
Jul 07, 2022•58 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Professor Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi, co-founder and board chair of Afrobarometer — the pan-African survey research network and global reference point for high-quality data on African democracy, governance, and quality of life — joins us to discuss the worsening crisis of democracy in West Africa, including that which is enveloping the region's largest country, Nigeria. He also points to some rays of hope as democracy advocates push back against this trend. E. Gyimah-Boadi is co-founder and boar...
Jun 15, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 9
In the second installment of our series on policy and infrastructure, Michael Bennon returns to chat with Francis Fukuyama about China's Belt and Road Initiative and projects that have gone south. Michael Bennon is a Research Scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) for the Global Infrastructure Policy Research Initiative. Michael's research interests include infrastructure policy, project finance, public-private partnerships, and institutional design...
May 31, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 8
In the first of a two-part series on policy and infrastructure, Michael Bennon joins Francis Fukuyama to discuss the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), its impacts, and how to overcome some of the challenges it creates. In a forthcoming report for California 100 — an ambitious statewide initiative to envision and shape the long-term success of the state — Fukuyama and Bennon use CEQA as a case study of California’s governance in an evolving media ecosystem. Michael Bennon is a Research...
May 19, 2022•33 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Liberalism is neither the progressive politics of the American left, nor the center-right orientation of European parties like the German Free Democrats, nor libertarianism built around hostility to the state. In this special episode, Francis Fukuyama explains his use of the term and discusses his latest book, Liberalism and Its Discontents . The book focuses on doctrine that first emerged in the middle of the 17th century that prized individuals over collectivities, accorded equal dignity to al...
May 10, 2022•8 min•Season 1Ep. 6
How does the Venezuelan crisis of democracy relate to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and other international trends? Venezuelan political leader and pro-democracy activist Leopoldo López joins the podcast to discuss with Francis Fukuyama and Marisa Kellam, a visiting scholar at CDDRL who researches the quality of democracy with a focus on Latin America. In this inspiring conversation, López emphasizes idealism, leadership, and his personal commitment to freedom. Leopoldo López is the founder an...
Mar 21, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Johannes Ludewig, a current visiting scholar at CDDRL, is a senior German government official who played a major role in German unification. In this episode, he joins Francis Fukuyama to reflect on the European reaction to the current crisis in Ukraine, as well as the leadership qualities that made unification possible almost 30 years ago. Dr. Johannes Ludewig served as Chairman of the German National Regulatory Control Council (NKR) from 2006-2021, and between 1997 and 2010 was the Chairman of ...
Mar 12, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 4
"The future health, if not survival, of American democracy is in danger in a way that it hasn't been in our lifetime," warns Larry Diamond, who sat down with Francis Fukuyama to discuss voting rights, the Electoral Count Act, and what reforms are needed to avert a future political catastrophe. Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass Univer...
Feb 22, 2022•25 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Continuing our discussion on the current situation in Ukraine, Francis Fukuyama speaks with Nataliya Gumenyuk, a Ukrainian author and journalist specializing in foreign affairs and conflict reporting. She joins the podcast from her home in Kyiv and shares her perspectives on the conflict, the Ukrainian government, and the country's political landscape. Nataliya Gumenyuk is the CEO and co-founder of the Public Interest Journalism Lab , which aims at popularizing best practices for public int...
Feb 10, 2022•33 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Fresh off the heels of a whirlwind trip to Kyiv with The Atlantic Council, former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer sits down with Francis Fukuyama to talk about what he saw and where he believes the current crisis between Russia and Ukraine is headed. Pifer is a William J. Perry Research Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation as well as a non-resident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution. From January-May 2021, he was a fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in ...
Feb 08, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 1
