Sep 10, 2024 | Blog, Democracy and Transitions to Authoritarianism
The most recent version of the World Values Survey (WVS) came out a little more than a year ago. The Economist had a particularly lucid and useful explanation of its conclusions, including some excellent graphics to illustrate their points. The survey is the creation...
Aug 15, 2024 | Blog, Democracy and Transitions to Authoritarianism, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate
One feature of the modern information environment is that it allows conspiracies and utopian fantasies of the left and right to grow undisturbed by reality. Utopian ideas are often the product of the irresistible notion that “if everyone thought like me, everything...
Jul 15, 2024 | Blog, Democracy and Transitions to Authoritarianism
In an earlier post I noted the growing list of scholars who warn of parallels between historical transitions from democracy to repressive dictatorships, on the one hand, and U.S. politics today, on the other. Part of what they see has to do with the recent...
Jun 20, 2024 | Blog, Democracy and Transitions to Authoritarianism
In last chapter of Climate of Contempt, I argue that the future of the energy transition is intertwined with the future of liberal democracy. I write in chapter 6 that only voters can peacefully reverse the “trend of ever-increasing polarization and tribalism,”...
Jun 1, 2024 | Blog, Democracy and Transitions to Authoritarianism
One of the central implications of the analysis in Climate of Contempt is that the energy transition is inextricably intertwined with U.S. political dysfunction. In chapter 6 I cite scholars who study transitions from democracy to populist authoritarianism who contend...
