What's Wrong with Democracy? – Details, episodes & analysis

Polling organisations often define Americans by their ethnic and racial identity. Ben wants to know if these voter “blocks” remain intact at the ballot box. Is it possible to predict how people will vote based on their identity? Or is demographic polling pointless? 

What’s Wrong with Democracy? US election miniseries - part one of three.

Guests: 

• Christopher Towler,  Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at California State University, Sacramento
• Kira Sanbonmatsu, Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University and Senior Scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics
• Mark Hugo-Lopez,  Director of Race and Ethnicity Research at the Pew Research Center

What’s Wrong with Democracy? is produced by Tortoise Media and supported by the Open Society Foundations. 

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalists.

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content.

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more.

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

Host: Professor Ben Ansell

Producers: Ada Barume and Eleanor Biggs

Editor: Lewis Vickers

Original artwork: Jon Hill | Emma O’Neil 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Democratic societies are a melting pot of people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds, but when political alliances are formed around a particular identity it can lead to division and sometimes violence. In this episode Ben explores one of the most extreme examples of ethnic conflict - the Rwandan genocide - and asks whether it’s possible to have a peaceful democracy after so much bloodshed.

Guests: 

• Sharun Mukand,  Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick
• James Chin, Professor of Asian studies at the University of Tasmania 

What’s Wrong with Democracy? is produced by Tortoise Media and supported by the Open Society Foundations. 

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalists.

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content.

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more.

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

Host: Professor Ben Ansell

Producers: Ada Barume and Eleanor Biggs

Editor: Lewis Vickers

Original artwork: Jon Hill | Emma O’Neil 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Another front on the war against democracy is information warfare. Ben Ansell digs into how modern day autocrats are using this. For almost a decade China has been running a media influencing campaign in Africa. Now Russia has taken it mainstream, and digital. But how effective are these disinformation campaigns? What’s the endgame? And how can we build up our defence arsenal? 

Guests:  

James Ball, journalist and author of Post Truth and The Other Pandemic

Emeka Umejei, research associate in the department of media studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa

Ben Scott, CEO of Reset Tech 

What’s Wrong with Democracy? is produced by Tortoise Media and supported by The Open Society Foundations. 

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

Host: Professor Ben Ansell

Producers: Katie Gunning and Ada Barume

Editor: Jasper Corbett

Original artwork: Jon Hill | Emma O’Neil

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Ukraine, democracy is under attack. Ben Ansell investigates what that means for the country’s future. Is the war a death knell or a rallying cry for democracy? What is at stake and how worried should we be about the rise of autocrats?

Guests:  

Olya Onuch, Professor of comparative and Ukrainian politics at the University of Manchester

Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, interim President of Freedom House 

What’s Wrong with Democracy? is produced by Tortoise Media and supported by The Open Society Foundations. 

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

Host: Professor Ben Ansell

Producers: Katie Gunning and Ada Barume

Editor: Jasper Corbett

Original artwork: Jon Hill | Emma O’Neil

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The world’s biggest democracy is currently in the middle of an election that will take six weeks to play out and involve over a billion people. Ben Ansell takes a closer look at the state of democracy in India, to try to understand what’s happening elsewhere. 

Guests:  

Dr Pavi Suryanarayan, Assistant professor at the LSE

Daniel Ziblatt, author of How Democracies Die

Mitali Mukherjee, Director of the Reuters institute’s Journalism programme

What’s Wrong with Democracy? is produced by Tortoise Media and supported by The Open Society Foundations. 

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

Host: Professor Ben Ansell

Producers: Katie Gunning and Ada Barume

Editor: Jasper Corbett

Original artwork: Jon Hill | Emma O’Neil

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Introducing: What's Wrong with Democracy?

By the end of this year, countries making up half the world’s population will have held elections. But not all of them will have been free and fair. In ‘What’s Wrong with Democracy?’ Professor Ben Ansell of Oxford University will, with the help of academics, journalists, activists and writers, figure out whether democracy is working and how best to preserve democratic freedoms, equality and rights. 

What’s Wrong with Democracy? is produced by Tortoise Media and supported by The Open Society Foundations. 

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

Host: Professor Ben Ansell

Producers: Katie Gunning and Ada Barume

Editor: Jasper Corbett

Original artwork: Jon Hill | Emma O’Neil

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The history of protest and democracy is long and complex, but taking to the streets has resulted in major democratic changes in the past. This week, Ben wants to know if protest still has a role to play in today’s politics. What are the barriers to protesting effectively? Is the time for peaceful protest over? And with autocracies on the rise, do citizens need a new tool to express their discontent?

Guests: 

• Ilya Marritz, journalist at the Boston Globe and co-host of ‘Will Be Wild’
• Dawn Brancati, senior lecturer in international and public affairs at Brown University
• Madzoo, Senegalese graffiti artist and activist

What’s Wrong with Democracy? is produced by Tortoise Media and supported by the Open Society Foundations. 

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalists.

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content.

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more.

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

Host: Professor Ben Ansell

Producers: Ada Barume and Eleanor Biggs

Editor: Lewis Vickers

Original artwork: Jon Hill | Emma O’Neil 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In many democracies voter turnout is lower than it’s ever been, especially among young people. Ben wants to know what we can do to get millennials and Gen Z to the polls. Do we need to rethink how we cast a vote? Why aren’t politicians more focused on winning over the next generation of voters? And how can we stop this trend so that political apathy doesn’t become political alienation?

Guests: 

Viktor Valgardsson, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at Southampton University

John Burn-Murdoch, chief data reporter at the Financial Times

Jake Grumbach, associate professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley

What’s Wrong with Democracy? is produced by Tortoise Media and supported by the Open Society Foundations. 

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

Host: Professor Ben Ansell

Producers: Ada Barume, Eleanor Biggs and Katie Gunning 

Editor: Jasper Corbett

Original artwork: Jon Hill | Emma O’Neil 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Democracies are made up of people with different views. But when we don’t feel connected, we become polarised. Ben speaks to Noreena Hertz about how loneliness leads to polarisation and then to Wendy Via to find out if opposing worldviews can ever be reconciled.

Guests: 

Noreena Hertz, economist and author of ‘The Lonely Century’

Wendy Via, Co-founder and president of the Global Project against Hate and Extremism

What’s Wrong with Democracy? is produced by Tortoise Media and supported by the Open Society Foundations. 

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

Host: Professor Ben Ansell

Producers: Ada Barume, Eleanor Biggs and Katie Gunning 

Editor: Jasper Corbett

Original artwork: Jon Hill | Emma O’Neil 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, as more of our political institutions are rocked by corruption from partisan forces, Ben wants to know how we can protect the independence of our judiciaries, and what happens when they go wrong. When democratic institutions fail, what does this do to our faith in democracy? And can a compromised judiciary ever be restored?

Guests:

Fida Hammami, Amnesty International's Tunisia Research and Advocacy Advisor

Ben Stanley, Associate Professor at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw and Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex

Kathryn Sikkink, Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School

What’s Wrong with Democracy? is produced by Tortoise Media and supported by the Open Society Foundations. 

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

Host: Professor Ben Ansell

Producers: Ada Barume and Eleanor Biggs

Editor: Jasper Corbett

Original artwork: Jon Hill | Emma O’Neil

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.