Dr. Mariam Mufti is an Associate Professor of political science at the University of Waterloo. She and Leslie discuss the various waves of democracy in the past century, and the backlash to them. They discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and how most democratic countries have united against it (at least so far). They also talk about what has led to the recent decrease in trust in public institutions, and why democratic voters support authoritarian leaders like Bolsonaro, Modi, Erdogan, and Duterte. Mariam provides suggestions on what citizens and countries can do to protect democracy, and discusses whether there is an inherent contradiction between Islam and democracy. Miriam does her best to convince Leslie that, despite recent setbacks, democracy is not a lost cause around the globe.
The statistics from the Economist were cited by Steve Paikin in Exporting Western Democracy on TVO’s The Agenda, and that there are three times more autocracies in the world than democracy in 1972 is from Lucan Way and Steve Levitsky’s work. Lucan Way, Bessma Momani and Martin Regg-Cohn were the inspiration for the arguments Mariam made in support of democracy in the last question.
Podcast for Inquiry is brought to you by the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Hosted by Leslie Rosenblood. Produced by Matt Payne. Graphic design by Nikolay Nikitushkin. Music by Anthony Lazaro. Send your thoughts and feedback to podcast@centreforinquiry.ca