Democracy does not die with a bang but a whimper

Authoritarianism is becoming increasingly normalised in the 21st
century. As anti-democratic movements take root globally in a
wide range of demographic and socioeconomic groups, democracy is
constantly under threat. In many countries, democratically
elected autocratic movements threaten to erode the foundations of
the systems they work within, aiming to sow division while
offering no real change. Will this be the final retreat of global
democracy?


In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro
invites Pranab Bardhan who is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus
of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley and
Heather Grabbe who is a senior adviser to the Open Society
Foundations, to discuss democratic backsliding in the world, its
economic underpinnings and what can be done to combat these
challenges.