Talk at UMass Law
I’m looking forward to talking at UMass Law on November 9, on recent trends in American politics. PPT for this talk here.
Posts from the ‘Four crises of democracy’ Category
Nov 5
ASPA DSJ discussion on insurrection and consequences
On February 4, I participated in a panel discussion hosted by the ASPA Section on Democracy and Social Justice, about the January 6 insurrection and its consequences. Watch the discussion here.
Assessing the state of American democracy
I’ve written a column for The Conversation, “What those mourning the fragility of American democracy get wrong.” Also in Spanish.
Interview on “Four Crises of American Democracy”
My interview with Dave Levine about my book Four Crises of American Democracy is now available here. The interview was originally broadcast on the KZSU-FM show Hearsay Culture in May 2017.
Review of “Four Crises” on LSE blog
On London School of Economics’ Politics & Policy blog, Matthew Flinders reviews Four Crises of American Democracy. Flinders writes: “This is a brilliant book and a much-needed antidote to ‘the politics of pessimism’ that swirls around so much scholarly writing and media messaging.” Read the review.
Review of “Four Crises” in Public Integrity
Public Integrity has published a review of Four Crises of American Democracy by Peter Federman of the University of Kansas. Read the review. “To merely say this book is prescient would be doing a disservice to the text; its relevance and accuracy in describing our national climate is almost unnerving,” Federman writes. “This is a book for citizens who care about democracy and find beauty and excitement in the fragility of this ‘great experiment.'”
Conversation about “Four Crises” on SiriusXM Insight, March 23
I talked about Four Crises of American Democracy with John Fugelsang on his SiriusXM Insight show, Tell Me Everything, on March 23. Listen to the interview here. Fugelsang says: “The political climate in the 2016 presidential election has only reinforced the perception that we are in a state of crisis. Roberts’ new book is amazing in how well it distills and explains the root causes of the crises facing our democracy and how they might be addressed. It is informative and also compulsively readable.”
Interview with KPFA’s Mitch Jeserich
I talked about Four Crises of American Democracy with Mitch Jeserich, host of KPFA’s Letters and Politics, on March 13. Listen to the interview here.
World Bank blog discusses “Four Crises of American Democracy”
On a World Bank blog, Sina Odugbemi discusses Four Crises of American Democracy. Odugbemi says that the book “furnishes us with a way of thinking about what might be wrong with liberal democracy in any specific national context that is as elegant and as thought-provoking as anything that I have encountered recently.” Read the review.
Review of “Four Crises” in Public Administration Review
Michael Spicer writes a review of Four Crises of American Democracy, in Public Administration Review: “Roberts’ thoughtful and elegant defense of democracy is to be welcomed, coming as it does at a time when serious doubts about the capacity of ordinary democratic politics and institutions to address our problems are being voiced, both on the right and left of our political spectrum. It is also a healthy reminder to critics of our system of all ideological hues that the real world alternatives to democratic politics and institutions are not necessarily likely to serve us much better. Moreover, packing as it does a wide range of modern history into less than 200 pages of text, it is a refreshingly accessible read and a much-needed reminder both to social scientists and citizens in general about the importance of paying attention to history and what it can teach us about democracy.” The review is available here.
Alasdair S. Roberts 
