The American Guardrails
Tracing democracy’s red lines.
Democracy is a permanent gamble and fears for its survival have always haunted it. But if panic is best avoided, so too is complacency. While a spectacular disaster is unlikely, there remains the insidious fear that, while the forms remain, democracy can slowly wither.
Phil Tinline sets out to trace where the red lines lie that keep our political system - and America’s - safe, by asking how we would know if they had been crossed, and democracy was on its way out.
In this third and final episode, Phil looks across the pond to America. On the eve of the US Presidential election, both sides warn that the other threatens to bring the republic’s democracy crashing down.
Contributors:
George Packer, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of ‘Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal’
Daniel Ziblatt, Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and author of ‘How Democracies Die’
Jennifer Dresden, Policy Strategist at Protect Democracy
Yascha Mounk, Associate Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University and author of 'Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time'
Oren Cass, Executive Director of American Compass and author of 'The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America'
Aziz Huq, Constitutional law scholar at the University of Chicago and co-author of 'How to Save a Constitutional Democracy'
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Broadcast
- Mon 28 Oct 2024 11:00´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4