Democracy in Danger

UVA Media Lab

All over the world, liberal democracy is getting turned upside-down. Autocratic leaders are using populist appeals, the partisan media, and the power of their offices to short-circuit deliberation and consensus. They are flouting the rule of law, unleashing the police and the military on their own people, suppressing dissent, and adopting openly hostile strategies to suppress voting rights and hinder fair elections. Racism, nativism and new technologies are combining to polarize citizens and promote extremist politics. And here in the United States, in 2020 — amid a pandemic, an economic crisis and a historic election year — many of these same trends are increasingly on display. Democracy in Danger, from the University of Virginia’s Deliberative Media Lab, takes on this global context, exploring what this illiberal turn means and what can be done about it. Can we save democracy — and make it work better? Join hosts Will Hitchcock and Siva Vaidhyanathan as they talk to leading scholars, writers and thinkers about the most pressing challenges facing government of, by and for the people and consider the historical trajectories that produced them. Each week Siva and Will address a different topic, from populism and xenophobia to the dark web and the role of social media in the democratic process. The series runs from July 2020 through the election cycle and beyond. New episodes post on Tuesdays. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and tweet us your thoughts @UVAMediaLab.