Populism’s Power

The Dig

Daniel Denvir

Politics, News

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2019

⏱️ 115 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Democracy is the proposition that the people should govern themselves. But who are the people, and how should they govern? Populist movements attempt to answer these questions. In response, establishment figures insist that it is the people and their populism that pose a dangerous threat to democracy. How should we appraise our current populist moment? And how can we distinguish between populism's left and right variants? Dan interviews two experts on populism, political scientists Laura Grattan and Thea Riofrancos. Check out Thea's n+1 essays on populism here: nplusonemag.com/issue-28/politics/democracy-without-the-people-2/ nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/zombie-liberalism/ nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/populism-without-the-people/ Thanks to Verso. Check out their huge collection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com Please support this podcast with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This episode of The Dig is brought to you by our listeners who support us at patreon.com
0:05.3	and by Verso Books, which has loads of great left-wing titles, perfect for dig listeners like you.
0:14.2	One that you might like is How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney, with a foreword by Angela Davis. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney, with a foreword by Angela Davis.
0:22.5	How Europe Underdeveloped Africa is an ambitious masterwork of political economy,
0:28.1	detailing the impact of slavery and colonialism on the history of international capitalism.
0:33.5	In this classic book, Rodney makes the unflinching case that African maldevelopment is not a natural feature of geography,
0:42.6	but a direct product of imperial extraction from the continent, a practice that continues up into the present.
0:50.6	Maticulously researched, how Europe underdeveloped Africa remains a relevant study for understanding
0:57.0	the so-called great divergence between Africa and Europe, just as it remains a prescient resource
1:03.5	for grasping the multiplication of global inequality today.
1:07.8	In this new edition, Angela Davis offers a striking forward to the book,
1:13.4	exploring its lasting contributions to a revolutionary and feminist practice of anti-imperialism.
1:20.7	How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney, with a foreword by Angela Davis.
1:27.3	Out now from Verso Books.
1:37.6	Welcome to The Dig, a podcast from Jacobin Magazine. My name is Daniel Denver, and I'm
1:43.9	broadcasting from Providence, Rhode Island.
1:47.4	If democracy is the proposition that the people should govern themselves, then who are the people,
1:54.4	and how should they govern? Since Donald Trump's election, however, establishment figures
2:00.1	haven't been asking that question.
2:02.9	Instead, they have been insisting that it is the people and their populism that pose a threat to democracy.
2:10.3	The people's demands, they say, are incoherent, irrational, mean, and dangerous, by which they often mean that they are dangerous to the status quo
2:19.5	and to its norms and institutions. Don't get me wrong. Trump, of course, poses so many threats.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Daniel Denvir, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Daniel Denvir and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.