Who Is Democracy Actually For? People, Power, and the Fight Against Democratic Decline

India’s 2026 State Elections and Indian Democracy?

This week on Democracy Dialogues, Maya Tudor speaks with two keen observers of Indian politics, Gilles Verniers and Yamini Aiyar, about what India’s 2026 state elections reveal about the future of the world’s largest democracy. Why did the incumbent government BJP make major gains in some states while struggling in others? Do competitive elections still mean democracy is entirely healthy? And why have places like Tamil Nadu and Kerala remained resistant to Hindu nationalist politics? This episode analyses one of the most important democratic stories in the world right now — and asks what state elections might tell us about India’s democracy more broadly. Gilles Verniers, Centre for South Asia at Stanford University. Gilles Verniers’ work on Indian politics and elections here [https://csa.stanford.edu/people/gilles-verniers] Yamini Aiyar, Visiting Professor of the Practice at the Watson School of International and Public Affairs, Brown University. Yamini Aiyar’s recent writing on democracy and electoral administration in India here [https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Billionaire Backlash: Can It Help Save Democracy?

This week on Democracy Dialogues, host Maya Tudor speaks with her colleague and fellow political scientist Pepper Culpepper about his new book Billionaire Backlash: The Age of Corporate Scandal and How It Could Save Democracy [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9781399424103], co-authored with Taeku Lee. They explore how corporate scandals—from industry exposes to data privacy breaches—can become moments of democratic reckoning, mobilizing public outrage against concentrated corporate power. The conversation examines why scandals matter politically, the circumstances under which public backlash can still generate meaningful accountability, and what good populism is in an era of growing economic inequality and democratic strain. Links: Bloomsbury here [https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/billionaire-backlash-9781399424110/] Journal of Democracy here [https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/when-populism-can-be-good/] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Who Is Democracy Actually For? People, Power, and the Fight Against Democratic Decline

This week on Democracy Dialogues, host Esam Boraey speaks with Shandana Khan Mohmand and Marjoke Oosterom, democracy experts at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, to unpack the takeaways of the newly released Democracy Report “Where’s the Dēmos in Democracy? Building Democratic Futures and Resisting Autocracy.” At a moment when autocracies outnumber democracies for the first time in twenty years, this report argues that the democratic crisis is not simply an institutional one, it is a crisis of exclusion. For too long, efforts to build democracy have focused on formal institutions like legislatures, courts, and electoral commissions, while neglecting the people those institutions are supposed to serve. The report puts forward eight building blocks for recentering citizens in democratic life, from building active citizenship and supporting informal mobilization, to reclaiming digital agency and strengthening accountability mechanisms. Drawing on decades of research across the Global South, from Pakistan and Zimbabwe to Uganda, Brazil, and beyond, Shandana and Marjoke bring the report's findings to life with vivid examples of how ordinary people fight back against backsliding, reclaim civic space, and keep democratic values alive even under authoritarian pressure. The conversation also addresses the role of inequality in driving democratic decline, the double-edged nature of digital technology, the power of youth movements, and what the dismantling of USAID means for global democracy support. Transcript here [https://cdn.craft.cloud/44c3b6c3-3307-4a13-a091-f99416660f91/assets/Episode-9-Transcript.docx#asset:453770@1:url] and the report is here [https://cdn.craft.cloud/44c3b6c3-3307-4a13-a091-f99416660f91/assets/IDS_DEMOCRACY_FINAL.pdf#asset:454068@1]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Assessing Global Democratic Health Amidst a Growing Shadow of Autocracy

This week on Democracy Dialogues, host Maya Tudor speaks with two democracy experts at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Freedom House to understand the headlines from Freedom House’s 2026 Report, entitled the growing shadow of autocratization. We discuss the drivers behind the 20th consecutive year of global democratic decline and compare the similarities and differences between Freedom House and Varieties of Democracy reports. We conclude by anticipating what lies ahead, what our experts are looking to understand, and what everyday citizens can do to strengthen democracy. Links: Freedom in the World 2026 [https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2026-03/FIW2026_final_digital%20%281%29.pdf] 25 Years of Autocratization [https://www.v-dem.net/documents/60/V-dem-dr__2025_lowres.pdf] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

A Year of Autocratization: Steep Declines in Democracy Registered in 2025 V-Dem Report

This week on Democracy Dialogues, host Rachel Beatty Riedl speaks with Kenneth Roberts and Paul Friesen, democracy experts at Cornell University, to unpack the takeaways of the newly released V-Dem 2025 Report “ 25 Years of Autocratization.” Drawing on the survey’s global measure of changes in regime status across the world, we discuss the dramatic decline of democracy in the United States, and what dimensions are driving that erosion. We also discuss other big moves, from declines in India and Indonesia, to improvements in Poland and Guatemala. We conclude with an analysis of some signs of hope and what to anticipate in the year ahead for ongoing contestation in the US around democratic rights and institutional sites of contention. Links: V-Dem Democracy Report 2025: here [https://www.v-dem.net/documents/60/V-dem-dr__2025_lowres.pdf] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]