With Yanina Welp I discuss different ways of how direct democratic institutions have been applied in Latin American countries – both in fundamentally democratizing processes but also power grabbing incidents. In particular, we talk about the cases of Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela, based on Yanina’s extensive research and deep knowledge.
With Rodan Bury and Charly Pache I discuss their initiative to inaugurate a Citizens’ Chamber in the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland. The idea of the Citizens’ Chamber is to complement the existing unicameral parliament with topic-specific citizens’ assemblies, for which members are selected by sortition. The goal of the Citizens’ Chamber is to enable citizens to directly participate in legislative processes.
With Lee Drutman I discuss how proportional representation can break the two-party doom-loop that is spiraling in the U.S. Lee co-founded the organization “Fix Our House” with Charlotte Hill and Eli Zupnick, that specifically campaigns for proportional representation for the U.S. House of Representatives.
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With Luai Allarakia I discuss Kuwait’s political system and institutions. He lays out the most important developments since its constitution was written in 1962. So in this conversation we really take the time to go into some detail of Kuwait’s institutions and I think it’s really worth it to talk about the specificities that are partly similar and partly different from a well-established democracy.
With Réal Lavergne I discuss the efforts of Fair Vote Canada to push for electoral reform. He shares the frustrations and problems that come with the first-past-the-post electoral system and how Fair Vote Canada tries to bring change to the balance of power.
Rules in Perspective is a new segment on Rules of the Game – discussing democratic institutions. In this new segment I review and comment on my own podcast episodes. In this episode of Rules in Perspective I review the podcast episode 36 on Current Development of Direct Democracy in Germany with Jan Renner.