Good Authority

The well-documented rise in right-wing populism has spawned no end of explanations. Are voters' preferences shifting? Do populist candidates capitalize and build on existing sentiments? This reading of an article by John Sides explores the recent paper by political scientists Oren Danieli, Noam Gidron, Shinnosuke Kikuchi, and Ro’ee Levy, which presents an interesting new angle on why populist parties across Europe have experienced a surge in electoral support.

The European Union prides itself on being a cooperative community of liberal democracies. Yet, the E.U. increasingly faces problems with countries that are backsliding. Listen to Good Authority editor Erik Voeten interview Dan Kelemen, the McCourt Chair at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. Dan has written extensively about these issues and has been a vocal critic of the European Commission and European politicians for ignoring Hungary’s democratic backsliding.

Layna Mosley, an expert on the politics of sovereign debt, discusses the reasons behind the debt crisis faced by developing economies, the impact of interest rates, challenges of renegotiating debt repayment, complexity in resolving debt crises, and radical solutions and political changes in the context of the sovereign debt crisis.

To take stock of the December 2023 COP28 in Dubai, Good Authority editor Erik Voeten speaks with climate policy expert Joanna Lewis, who was there and who has been going to the annual Conference of Parties, or COPs, for over 20 years.

Topics discussed in the podcast include the avoidance of nuclear war, ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan, challenges faced in repealing certain laws, and the UK policy of deporting unauthorized migrants to Rwanda and its implications for the Good Friday Agreement.

With mounting casualties, an expanding humanitarian crisis, and rising global political tensions, the question of how the Israel-Hamas war might end is on everyone’s mind. Good Authority’s Erik Voeten spoke with Barbara F. Walter, a leading expert on civil wars, violent extremism and domestic terror. 

Good Authority's mission is to bring insights from political science to a broader audience. Here, political scientists draw on their expertise and the discipline’s research to provide in-depth analysis, illuminate the news, and inform the political conversation.