Tag Archives: Elections

The French are electing a new President. On today’s show we explore French politics and society and the potential of a French election of a far right candidate as President. [ dur: 58mins. ]

On April 10, 2022, French voters went to the polls for Presidential elections. Like so many countries, the first round of elections are multi-party. If no candidate receives 50% of the vote, then a second round of elections is held with the top 2 finishers. In a repeat of the 2017 elections, Emmanuel Macron received the most votes but fell short of the 50% threshold. He will once again run against National Front candidate Marine Le Pen. This election will be held April 24. What is at stake is French participation in the European Union and NATO. French identity is at stake as well, with Le Pen’s well known white nationalist appeal to French voters. We will discuss political and social developments in France, and what we are watching in the outcomes on April 24.

Martin A. Schain is Professor of Politics, Emeritus, at New York University. He is the author of The Politics of Immigration in France, Britain and the United States: A Comparative Study, and co-author and editor of Comparative Federalism: The US and EU in Comparative Perspective and Shadows Over Europe: The Development and Impact of the Extreme Right in Europe.
Patrick Chamorel is Senior Resident Scholar and a lecturer at the Stanford Center in Washington. He is the author of France’s Vanishing Center and The French Presidential Election: Can Macron Stay Ahead of the Pack?
Fleur Macdonald is a freelance journalist who works in print and radio. She is the author of The Malaise Poisoning French Politic

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Politics of Eroding and Sustaining Democracy in USA – February 6, 2022

February 5, 2022 host

Democracy is eroding in the United States? What are the causes and what should be done? Is the erosion of democracy because of political elites and specifically the reaction of the Republican Party to the 2020 election? Or does it run deeper? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Jacob S. Hacker is Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He is the co-author of Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality, American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper and the 2010 bestseller Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, all books co-authored with Paul Pierson.
Sigal Ben-Porath is a professor in the Literacy, Culture, and International Education Division of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She also holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Political Science. She is the author of Making Up Our Mind: What School Choice is Really About, Free Speech on Campus, Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship, and Citizenship under Fire: Democratic Education in Times of Conflict .
Martin Gilens is Chair of the Department of Public Policy and Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Social Welfare at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. He is the author of Affluence & Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America and co-author, with Benjamin I. Page, of Democracy in America?: What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do about It.
Larry M. Bartels holds the May Werthan Shayne Chair of Public Policy and Social Science at Vanderbilt University. He is the Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. He is the co-author of Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government (with Christopher Achen) and Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age.

This program is produced by Maria Armoudian, Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – California recall process and democracy ; Why people follow QAnon – September 12, 2021

September 11, 2021 host

California’s Recall process is broken. It may well be unconstitutional and undemocratic. With an upcoming recall election, we explore these issues and discuss potential reforms. [ dur: 28mins. ]

Erwin Chemerinsky is Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at UC Berkeley Law School. He is the author of The Case Against the Supreme Court, We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century, and his latest Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights.
Henry Brady is Former Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the co-author of Unequal and Unrepresented: Political Inequality and the People’s Voice in the New Gilded Age, and The Unheavenly Chorus: Political Voice and the Promise of American Democracy. He is also the co-editor of Capturing Campaign Effects.

Q Anon has grown significantly in the last few years. We explore a new book that explains the conspiracy theory with the authors.
Why did Q Anon become so widespread? Who does the theory appeal to? And how is it harming individuals and society? [ dur: 28mins. ]

Mia Bloom is a Professor of Communication and Middle East Studies at Georgia State University. She is a member of the Evidence-Based Cybersecurity Research Group, also at Georgia State University. She is the author of Living Together After Ethnic Killing, Bombshell: Women and Terror and Small Arms: Children and Terror.
Sophia Moskalenko is a psychologist studying mass identity, inter-group conflict, and conspiracy theories. She is the author of Friction: How Conflict Radicalizes Them and Us and The Marvel of Martyrdom: The Power of Self-Sacrifice in the Selfish World.

Together they have authored PASTELS AND PEDOPHILES: Inside the Mind of QAnon

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Election Laws in America ; Underestimated Impact of Seabed Mining – August 15, 2021

August 14, 2021 host

Since the 2020 election, Republican state legislators have passed a series of laws intended to shrink the number of eligible voters in future elections. What are the legal implications and what does this mean for the future of American democracy? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 36mins. ]

Nicholas Stephanopoulos is Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is the author of The New Vote Dilution, Election Litigation in the Time of the Pandemic and Depoliticizing Redistricting.
Kimberly Wehle is Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. She is the author of What You Need to Know about Voting—and Why and How to Read The Constitution—and Why.

The search for minerals is leading some corporations to begin mining the ocean floor but scientists warn that this could devastate fragile ecosystems that will have repercussions that we still don’t understand. What is going on in the deep sea? What precautions should be taken to prevent devastating fragile ecosystems? hosted by Maria Armooudian. [ dur: 22mins. ]

Craig Smith is Professor of Oceanography at the University of Hawai’i.
Verena Tunnicliffe is a marine biologist at the University of Victoria in Canada where she holds a Canada Research Chair in Deep Ocean Research.

They are co-authors of the study Deep Sea Misconceptions Cause Underestimation of Seabed-Mining Impacts.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Military Coup snatches away young democracy from people of Myanmar-Burma – February 7, 2021

February 7, 2021 host

The Burmese military has again overthrown the democratic government in Myanmar. What is the future of the government and how should democracy advocates respond? We discuss how international actors committed to democracy in Myanmar should use their influence to counter the military coup. Also, Burma has been a nation of trauma. We look at how the coup continues this pattern. Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Seinenu M. Thein-Lemelson is Visiting Scholar in the Anthropology Department at UCLA and a senior research scientist for the Foundation for Psychocultural Research (FPR). She is the author of forthcoming book chapter Healing Our Sacrifice: Trauma and Translation in the Burmese Democracy Movement and her forthcoming book is entitled, Naingkyin: Body of Sacrifice, Spirit of Resilience.
Kosal Path is Associate Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Master’s Program in International Affairs and Global Justice at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He is the author of the book Vietnam’s Strategic Thinking During the Third Indochina War.
Jonathan Lijeblad is Senior Lecturer at Australian National University. He’s the author of the forthcoming book chapter The Prospects for Amending Myanmar’s 2008 Constitution in its Transition to Democracy and Democracy, Rule of Law, & Legal Ethics Education: Directing Lawyers to Support Democratization in Myanmar.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – The future of American Democracy and What is Trump’s legacy? – January 10, 2021

January 9, 2021 host

The mob seizure of the US Capitol this week has raised several concerns about the future of American democracy? Was this a coup attempt? Is this beginning an era of undemocratic actions against peaceful transitions following elections? And is the Trump Presidency an anomaly to American democracy? [ dur: 27mins. ]

Anne Meng is Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. She is the author of Constraining Dictatorship: From Personalized Rule to Institutionalized Regimes.
Naunihal Singh is Associate Professor at the U.S. Naval War College. He is the author of Seizing Power: The Strategic Logic of Military Coups and this analysis article on Washington Post: Monkey Cage Section.

The authoritarianism of the Trump Administration has lasting implications for the Presidency. We discuss this authoritarianism and his impact on the Republican Party. [ dur: 31 mins. ]

Andrew Rudalevige is Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government at Bowdoin College. He is co-author of Managing the President’s Program: Presidential Leadership and Legislative Policy Formulation and the author of The New Imperial Presidency.
George C. Edwards III is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Jordan Chair in Presidential Studies at Texas A&M University. His books include On Deaf Ears: The Limits of the Bully Pulpit , The Strategic President: Persuasion and Opportunity in Presidential Leadership and Predicting the Presidency: The Potential of Persuasive Leadership. He is the editor of Presidential Studies Quarterly.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Aftermath of The US Election 2020 exposes A Crisis of Legitimacy – November 22, 2020

November 21, 2020 host

Was the election conducted properly? Will mail in ballots be counted and will that count be allowed to stand? Will the US Supreme Court decide the final outcome? And what, in any case, will become of American democracy? In this urgent and timely event, University of Auckland lecturers will use the lenses of law, political science, and psychology to explain this contested election and discuss the implications of the final outcome. This is a recording of the panel gathered at University of Auckland Law School on November 18th, 2020.

Associate Professor Timothy Kuhner from the Faculty of Law at University of Auckland. Professor Kuhner is known for his critical approaches to the law of democracy. His teaching and research focus on comparative constitutional law, corruption, political finance, and law & society. He is the author of Capitalism v. Democracy: Money in Politics and the Free Market Constitution (Stanford University Press, 2014)
Dr Maria Armoudian from the Faculty of Arts at University of Auckland. Dr. Maria Armoudian is a lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, the host and producer of the radio program, The Scholars’ Circle, and the author of two books, Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World, and Reporting from the Danger Zone: Frontline Journalists, Their Jobs and an Increasingly Perilous Future.
Associate Professor Danny Osborne from the Faculty of Science at University of Auckland. Danny Osborne is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. Danny received his PhD from UCLA in 2011, where he studied social psychology with an emphasis in political psychology and quantitative methods. Danny’s research seeks to understand the causes and consequences of inequality, with a particular emphasis on ideology and collective action. His publications include Ideology and Post-Colonial Society and Opposing Paths to Ideology: Group-Based Relative Deprivation Predicts Conservatism Through Warmth Toward Ingroup and Outgroup Members.
Associate Professor Scott Optican from the Faculty of Law at University of Auckland.He specializes in evidence, criminal procedure, and comparative criminal procedure, and has written widely on criminal justice and policing issues arising under the New Zealand Bill of Rights. Scott is also a co-author of The New Zealand Bill of Rights (Oxford University Press: 2003), the first comprehensive treatise on the protection of rights and freedoms under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Analysis of Armenia-Azerbaijan Ceasefire Agreement -/- US Electoral College fault lines – November 8, 2020

November 14, 2020 host

A peace agreement brokered by Russia was signed this week by Azerbaijan and Armenia to end the fighting in the Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, region. What are the details of the agreement and why did both sides agree? [ dur: 33mins. ]

Richard Giragosian is the Founding Director of the Regional Studies Center (RSC), an independent “think tank” located in Yerevan, Armenia. He is Visiting Professor at the College of Europe’s Natolin Campus and Senior Expert at Yerevan State University’s Centre for European Studies (CES). He is the author of the book chapter Small States and Large Costs of Regional Fracture: The Case of Armenia
Robert English is Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Russia and the Idea of the West: Gorbachev, Intellectuals and the End of the Cold War and The Other Side: How Soviets and Americans Perceive Each Other.

How much did the Electoral College matter in this election? Should it be reformed? Is it anti-democratic? And if should be reformed, what should be done? [ dur: 25mins. ]

Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at University of Texas, Austin. He holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy
Sanford Levinson is W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School. He is the author of many publications including Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It) and Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance and, with Cynthia Levinson, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws that Affect Us Today.

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – US 2020 Elections, views from outside the US – November 8, 2020

November 7, 2020 host

How does the US election look to people outside the US. Will its ability to navigate the process show observers abroad the strength of US democracy or will it show its weaknesses.

We explore the American election as viewed from Greece, Britain, Brazil and Canada. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Aristotle Tziampiris is Professor of International Relations and Director of the MSc Program in Energy: Strategy, Law & Economics at the Department of International and European Studies of the University of Piraeus. He is also the President of the Council for International Relations-Greece. He is the author of Greece, European Political Cooperation and the Macedonian Question and co-editor of The New Eastern Mediterranean: Theory, Politics and States in Volatile Era and The Emergence of the Israeli-Greek Cooperation.
Erica Resende is Assistant Professor of International Relations and Security Studies at the Brazilian War College in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is the co-editor of Memory and Trauma in International Relations: Theories, Cases and Debates; and Crisis and Change in Post Cold-War Global Politics.
Simon Radford is an independent scholar based in the UK. He is the author of Can donations buy you a British peerage: a study in the link between party, political funding and peerage nominations, 2005 – 2014.
Lisa Burke is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Denver. She is the author of Natural Disasters in the book Rethinking 21st Century Security.

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Supreme Court and 2020 US Elections -/- Role of Class and Identity in US Elections – November 1, 2020

November 1, 2020 host

We speak about the Supreme Court and the Presidency. Also, how has Donald Trump reshaped the Federal Judiciary and the Supreme Court and how does that shape the election? [ dur: 29mins. ]

Michele Bratcher Goodwin is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy. She is the author of Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood, Baby Markets: Money and the Politics of Creating Families and Black Markets: The Supply and Demand of Body Parts.
Tim Fadgan is Politics and Policy Lecturer at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of Do the best interests of the child end at the Nation’s shores: Immigration, state courts, and children in the United States.
Jennifer Frost is an Associate Professor for History at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is the author of An Interracial Movement of the Poor: Community Organizing and the New Left in the 1960s and Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism

We discuss how the role of class and identity politics in the midst of American politics are shaping elections. [ dur: 28mins. ]

Nancy Isenberg is Professor of American History at Louisiana State University. She is the co-author of The Problem of Democracy: The Presidents Adams Confront the Cult of Personality and author of the New York Times Bestseller White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America.
Tim Fadgan is Politics and Policy Lecturer at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of Do the best interests of the child end at the Nation’s shores: Immigration, state courts, and children in the United States.
Jennifer Frost is an Associate Professor for History at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is the author of An Interracial Movement of the Poor: Community Organizing and the New Left in the 1960s and Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Tag Archives: Elections

Scholars’ Circle – Will France Elect a Far Right President?- April 17, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Politics of Eroding and Sustaining Democracy in USA – February 6, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – California recall process and democracy ; Why people follow QAnon – September 12, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Election Laws in America ; Underestimated Impact of Seabed Mining – August 15, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Military Coup snatches away young democracy from people of Myanmar-Burma – February 7, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – The future of American Democracy and What is Trump’s legacy? – January 10, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Aftermath of The US Election 2020 exposes A Crisis of Legitimacy – November 22, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Analysis of Armenia-Azerbaijan Ceasefire Agreement -/- US Electoral College fault lines – November 8, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – US 2020 Elections, views from outside the US – November 8, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Supreme Court and 2020 US Elections -/- Role of Class and Identity in US Elections – November 1, 2020

By Maria Armoudian