Overcoming America’s deep partisan polarization poses a unique challenge: Americans must be able to disagree on policy while nonetheless agreeing on more fundamental democratic principles. We study one model of depolarization—reciprocal group reflection—inspired by marital counseling and implemented by a non-governmental organization, Braver Angels. We randomly assigned undergraduate students at four universities in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, South, and Midwest either to participate in a Braver Angels workshop or simply to complete three rounds of surveys.

The talk is based on a chapter discussing the links between pre-communist social structure and post-communist voting patterns among the middle class from her forthcoming book The Estate Origins of Democracy in Russia: From Imperial Bourgeoisie to Post-Communist Middle-Class (coming out with Cambridge University Press in 2022). The book departs from classic accounts in historical political economy and comparative politics that analyze the significance of the bourgeoisie from the perspective of coalitional dynamics and role in genesis of particular orders—democracy or autocracy.

This event will take place on Zoom; sign up to the Seminar mailing list for the Zoom link at:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSehoD13cFQgnv1NQAO_T-mJTfog9pZii4DC9wm2FWn-x_zJsg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Discussant: Amiad Haran Diman

Elina Alem Kent was a video and audio producer for the now-shuttered Kyiv Post in Ukraine and is currently producing a podcast, Media in Progress, about the Post journalists' decision to defy the shutdown and start their own independent outlet.

This series is an opportunity for DPIR DPhils to present their work in progress and gather feedback.

Our first presenter this term is Javier Pérez Sandoval. Javier defended his dissertation in Michaelmas and is currently on the job market. His talk is titled "The Origins of Subnational Democracy."

The rise of China has become one of the most significant geopolitical development and issue of our time. To some, the Middle kingdom symbolises opportunity and growth; to others, it represents oppression and the return of an anti-liberal, anti-democratic world order.

With the Beijing Winter Olympics fast approaching, the world's spotlight is once again on China, its political system, its economic performance, its pandemic response, and perhaps the most controversial of all, its human rights record. This raises several questions:

What is the China under President Xi?

Does power corrupt, or are corrupt people drawn to power? Are entrepreneurs who embezzle and cops who kill the outgrowths of bad systems or are they just bad people? Are tyrants made or born? If you were thrust into a position of power, would new temptations to line your pockets or torture your enemies gnaw away at you until you gave in?