In this episode, I talk to Gary Marks who is Professor of Political Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. We discuss the work of Seymour Martin Lipset and focus on three main themes in Lipset’s body of work.
We first discuss Lipset’s 1960 book Political Man, which includes a number of essays that have become classics of political sociology and political science more generally. Central themes of the book are the social requisites for democracy and the group bases of politics. Our second focus is on Lipset and Rokkan’s cleavage theory and the formation and transformation of party systems. In line with the main ideas of Political Man, we discuss cleavage theory as a sociological and group based approach to political competition and contrast it with the Downsian perspective. The third part of the conversation covers Gary’s joined work with Lipset that addresses the question of why there has never been a successful socialist party in the United States.
The conversation goes beyond the work of Lipset alone and focuses on several main themes of political sociology as well as many political transformations of the last 100 years.
If you want to know more about Gary and his work, you can visit his website. http://garymarks.web.unc.edu/
I hope you enjoy the conversation.
Political science reading recommendation:
Achen, Christopher/Bartels, Larry, 2016, Democracy for Realists, Princeton University Press
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In this episode, I talk to Gary Marks who is Professor of Political Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. We discuss the work of Seymour Martin Lipset and focus on three main themes in Lipset’s body of work.
We first discuss Lipset’s 1960 book Political Man, which includes a number of essays that have become classics of political sociology and political science more generally. Central themes of the book are the social requisites for democracy and the group bases of politics. Our second focus is on Lipset and Rokkan’s cleavage theory and the formation and transformation of party systems. In line with the main ideas of Political Man, we discuss cleavage theory as a sociological and group based approach to political competition and contrast it with the Downsian perspective. The third part of the conversation covers Gary’s joined work with Lipset that addresses the question of why there has never been a successful socialist party in the United States.
The conversation goes beyond the work of Lipset alone and focuses on several main themes of political sociology as well as many political transformations of the last 100 years.
If you want to know more about Gary and his work, you can visit his website. http://garymarks.web.unc.edu/
I hope you enjoy the conversation.
Political science reading recommendation:
Achen, Christopher/Bartels, Larry, 2016, Democracy for Realists, Princeton University Press
Episode 4 - Cas Mudde. The Populist Radical Right in Europe
Transformation of European Politics Podcast
51 minutes 8 seconds
5 years ago
Episode 4 - Cas Mudde. The Populist Radical Right in Europe
In this episode, I talk to Cas Mudde who is Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF Professor of International Affairs at the University of Georgia. The conversation will focus on his 2007 book “Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe” but we will also talk about his new book “The Far Right Today” which is not only written for an academic but also a broader audience. https://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509536832
Cas Mudde’s work has played a crucial role for defining and conceptually delineating the populist radical right. He defines the radical right as an ideological group that combines nativism and authoritarianism and distinguishes it from the extreme right, which is more decidedly anti-democratic. His definition of populism as a thin-centered ideology that pitches the pure people against the corrupt elite has become the reference point for much political science work on populism.
The conversation focuses on how the far right has changed over the past decades – not only as an actor but more importantly in the perception of mainstream society. While they used to be parties and movements at the fringes of society, they have now become mainstream.
If you are interested in knowing more about Cas and his work, you can follow him on Twitter under “at” CasMudde or visit his website https://spia.uga.edu/faculty-member/cas-mudde/
Cas also writes a regular column for the Guardian.
I hope you enjoy the conversation
Political science recommendation:
Canovan, Margaret. 1999. Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of Democracy. https://bit.ly/3eZaBa7
Transformation of European Politics Podcast
In this episode, I talk to Gary Marks who is Professor of Political Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. We discuss the work of Seymour Martin Lipset and focus on three main themes in Lipset’s body of work.
We first discuss Lipset’s 1960 book Political Man, which includes a number of essays that have become classics of political sociology and political science more generally. Central themes of the book are the social requisites for democracy and the group bases of politics. Our second focus is on Lipset and Rokkan’s cleavage theory and the formation and transformation of party systems. In line with the main ideas of Political Man, we discuss cleavage theory as a sociological and group based approach to political competition and contrast it with the Downsian perspective. The third part of the conversation covers Gary’s joined work with Lipset that addresses the question of why there has never been a successful socialist party in the United States.
The conversation goes beyond the work of Lipset alone and focuses on several main themes of political sociology as well as many political transformations of the last 100 years.
If you want to know more about Gary and his work, you can visit his website. http://garymarks.web.unc.edu/
I hope you enjoy the conversation.
Political science reading recommendation:
Achen, Christopher/Bartels, Larry, 2016, Democracy for Realists, Princeton University Press
