The Periphery from the Pulaski Institution: Recent Episodes
The Pulaski Institution
Franziska Wagner studied comparative political sciences at the University of Mannheim and at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, Sciences Po. Her research interests lie in party politics, far-right politics, social media, and computational approaches to social sciences. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D in Political Sciences at the Central European University, where she works on party communication on social media, and the role of discourse and emotions. Franziska is a researcher at the AUTHLIB project (Neo-authoritarianisms in Europe and the liberal democratic response) that aims at exploring the varieties of neo-authoritarian, illiberal ideologies in Europe and their political implications.
You can read her piece here: https://www.authlib.eu/
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2024.1390587/full
Today, I'm talking with Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt about her recent piece in Aeon Magazine, entitled "The southern gap." The piece explores the roots of economic underdevelopment in the American South, a problem that still plagues the region. From there, we talk more broadly about the politics of the South and what it means to be a Southerner today.
Keri Leigh Merritt works as a historian and writer in Atlanta, Georgia. She earned her B.A. from Emory University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. Her first book, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017), won both the Bennett Wall Award from the Southern Historical Association, honoring the best book in Southern economic or business history published in the previous two years, as well as the President’s Book Award from the Social Science History Association.
Keri's piece at aeon: https://aeon.co/essays/capitalism-and-underdevelopment-in-the-american-south
Keri's website: https://kerileighmerritt.com/
Dr. Kristin Lunz Trujillo from the University of South Carolina joins to discuss ruralness and identity in America. We talk about the new book, White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman, as well as some of the broader ideas about who is rural and what that means for the people living in those places.
You can read Kristin's Newsweek response to White Rural Rage here: 'White Rural Rage' Cites My Research. It Gets Everything About Rural America Wrong
Pulaski fellow Bailey Fairbanks joins to talk about the potential for a mifepristone ban and the practice of judge shopping.
Bailey Fairbanks joins Alan to talk about the Supreme Court's temporary hold on Texas's SB4. We also chat about a story featured in one of this week's Headlines from the Heartlands, concerning Russian Orthodoxy and American neo-Confederates.
Find the link to our new home for Headlines from the Heartlands here: https://alanelrod.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web
Dr. Alex Middlewood of Wichita State University joins to talk about her new venture, IKE Lab. At IKE Lab, Alex and Brian Amos are building data and analysis of Kansas elections down to the most local level.
We also talk about a new anti-DEI bill in Kansas, the challenges of brain drain, and crackdowns on local authority in red states. Read Dr. Middlewood's previous essay for Pulaski's 50 Takes on Democracy series here.
Bailey Fairbanks joins to talk immunity, Judge Aileen Cannon, Alabama's IVF U-turn, and the Michigan primary.
Welcome to a new regular segment of The Periphery, in which I'll be joined by Pulaski fellow Dr. Bailey Fairbanks to talk about current events with an eye to Pulaski's mission. This time, we're talking about the Alabama Supreme Court's recent ruling that frozen embryos are children.
This episode is guest hosted by Pulaski fellow Dr. Dominik Stecula. Dominik is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Colorado State University. His research interests encompass the intersection of political communication, political behavior, and science communication, in the American, but also in a comparative context. He was also born in Brzeg, Poland and writes about American politics for Polish publications like Polityka, Gazeta Wyborcza, and Kultura Liberalna.
Dominic interviews Dr. Ben Stanley, of SWPS University in Warsaw. Dr. Stanley is a sociologist and political scientist. He researches voting behavior, political parties, populism, and the state of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe.
They talk about the recent elections in Poland, why Law and Justice stumbled, and the near-term prospects for pro-democracy forces in Poland.
Matt McManus joins to talk about his newest book, The Political Right and Equality: Turning Back the Tide of Egalitarian Modernity(Routledge). The book is a wide-ranging and gripping exploration of right-wing arguments against egalitarianism. We talk about as many of McManus's subjects as we can fit into an episode, including Fyodor Dostoevsky, Patrick Devlin, Patrick Deneen, Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Schmitt, and more.
Matt lectures at the University of Michigan.
Itoro Bassey is a first-generation Nigerian-American who grew up in Southbridge, Massachusetts. She is a journalist, playwright, cultural worker, educator, and novelist. Her debut novel, Faith, was published by Malarkey Books in 2022. Itoro has previously worked as a correspondent for Arise News and is now a segment producer for the BBC, based in Washington, D.C.
We talk about her experiences growing up in rural New England, her time living in Nigeria, and how identity and ruralness play out in our everyday lives.
Dr. Kevin Vallier is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University, where he directs their program in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law. Vallier’s interests lie primarily in political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE). He is also an affiliate with the Center for Social Norms and Behavioral Dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania.
His newest book is All the Kingdoms of the World: On Radical Religious Alternatives to Liberalism. He joins to talk about Catholic integralism, its vision of politics and freedom, and some of the leading thinkers in America, as well as Hungary, who are driving it forward.
More on Dr. Vallier's book, from the publisher (Oxford University Press): According to a common narrative, the twentieth century spelled the end of faith-infused political movements. Their ideologies, like Catholic integralism, would soon be forgotten. Humans were finally learning to keep religion out of politics. Or were we? In the twenty-first century, nations as diverse as Russia, India, Poland, and Turkey have seen a revival of religious politics, and many religious movements in other countries have proved similarly resilient. A new generation of political theologians passionately reformulates ancient religious doctrines to revolutionize modern political life. They insist that states recognize the true religion, and they reject modern liberal ideals of universal religious freedom and church-state separation. In this book, philosopher Kevin Vallier explores these new doctrines, not as lurid oddities but as though they might be true. The anti-liberal doctrine known as Catholic integralism serves as Vallier’s test case. Yet his approach naturally extends to similar ideologies within Chinese Confucianism and Sunni Islam. Vallier treats anti-liberal thinkers with respect that liberals seldom afford them and offers more moderate skeptics of liberalism a clear account of the alternatives. Many liberals, by contrast, will find these doctrines frightening and strange but of enduring interest. Vallier invites all his readers on a unique intellectual adventure, encouraging them to explore unfamiliar ideals through the lenses of theology, philosophy, politics, economics, and history.
Pulaski fellows Dr. Hanah Stiverson and Dr. Dominik Stecuła join Dr. Michael Simeone from New America and Arizona State to discuss some of the dangers of misinformation and disinformation, with particular attention given to rural and exurban America.
A link to the video version of the panel is here: (488) A Pulaski Panel: Misinformation, Disinformation, and Offline Effects in America's Heartlands - YouTube
Craig Calhoun is University Professor of Social Sciences at Arizona State University. Previously, he was Director of the London School of Economics, President of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), founder of the Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU, and a professor there and at UNC-Chapel Hill, Columbia, and Princeton. He is also a member of the Pulaski Board.
Calhoun’s newest book is Degenerations of Democracy (Harvard 2022, co-authored with Dilip Gaonkar and Charles Taylor). This takes democracy to be a project, not simply a set of formal arrangements, and looks at the ways disempowerment of citizens, partisan polarization, and politics oriented only to winning and not the public good undermine democracy from within. He has also recently edited The Green New Deal and the Future of Work (Columbia 2022, with Benjamin Fong). This explores ways in which the pursuit of better lives and livelihoods for workers could – potentially – be integrated with environmental justice and action to minimize damage from climate change.
Samuel C. Spitale is a media studies expert who has written for Huffington Post, as well as Geek magazine and Advocate.com. Previously, he worked at Lucasfilm Ltd. in global product development. In addition to How to Win the War on Truth, he is the author of Star Wars: Collecting a Galaxy.
We talk about his book, the ways in which he thinks about our emotions and biases, and how to better navigate a fraught informational landscape.
Matt McManus is a lecturer in political science at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He is the author of The Emergence of Postmodernity and Liberalism and Liberal Rights: A Critical Legal Argument amongst other books. His forthcoming work includes the essay collection Nietzsche and the Politics of Reaction for Palgrave MacMillan and The Political Right and Equality for Routledge Press.
You can also find Matt's writings around the web, at places like Arc Digital, Liberal Currents, and Jacobin.
William Kristol has been a major figure in American political life for decades. He was a founder of The Weekly Standard, and is a regular guest on leading political commentary shows. Prior to his work at The Weekly Standard, Kristol led the Project for the Republican Future, an organization that helped shape the strategy that produced the 1994 Republican congressional victory. From 1985 to 1993, Kristol served as chief of staff to Education Secretary William Bennett in the Reagan Administration and as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle in the George H. W. Bush administration. Before coming to Washington, Kristol taught politics at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University. William Kristol is currently editor-at-large of The Bulwarkand a leading Never Trump voice.
We talked about the rising tide of illiberalism in America and abroad. We also discussed how people who believe in liberal democracy can think and act in the interest of preserving it. It was a great conversation.
Dr. Justin Ellis is a senior lecturer in criminology at the Newcastle School of Law and Justice. His research into digiqueer criminology critically analyses the relationship between digital media technology, criminal justice, and queer representation and resistance. His broader research focus is on the relationship between digital technologies on institutional accountability and responsible government. He is also joining Pulaski as new fellow!
Helpful links:
A Fairy Tale Gone Wrong: the Politicisation of Drag Queen Storytime
Policing Legitimacy : Social Media, Scandal and Sexual Citizenship
Liberal MP Moira Deeming says she will fight moves to oust her from party after attending Melbourne rally
J.K. Rowling’s transphobia is a product of British culture
Dr. Shaun Casey was U.S. special representative for religion and global affairs and director of the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs. He is also a non-resident fellow at Pulaski.
His new book is Chasing the Devil at Foggy Bottom: The Future of Religion in American Diplomacy. From the publisher: "In this fresh and provocative narrative, Casey writes frankly about his work integrating sophisticated, research-driven policy into the State Department under Secretary of State John Kerry. Their new strategy went beyond older paradigms that focused myopically on religious freedom or countering violent extremism. Such reductive approaches, Casey insists, cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars in the US’s ill-fated invasion of Iraq in 2003. Witty and astute, Casey recounts his team’s challenges in DC politics as well as in the major global events of his tenure, including climate change, the rise of ISIL, and the refugee crisis. "
We talk about the role of religion in the past, future, and present of American diplomacy; how to effectively coordinate policy around shared values; and where we've gone wrong in the recent past, as well as how we can get things right in the future.
This episode's guest is Tom Nichols, professor emeritus at the United States Naval War College and staff writer at The Atlantic. Tom is the author of the Peacefield newsletter and the Atlantic Daily newsletter. His most recent book is Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault from within on Modern Democracy.In that book, he "challenges the current depictions of the rise of illiberal and anti-democratic movements in the United States and elsewhere as the result of the deprivations of globalization or the malign decisions of elites. Rather, he places the blame for the rise of illiberalism on the people themselves." (Publisher's description) We talk about Tom's concerns that modern life has left people spoiled, angry, and nostalgic for a time that never really existed and how this disposition has contributed to the rise of politicians like Donald Trump.
Our Own Worst Enemy is now available in paperback.
Dr. Alex Middlewood joins for another conversation in our 50 Takes on Democracy Series. Dr. Middlewood is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Wichita State University. Her areas of specialization include gun politics, public opinion, political behavior, civic engagement, and gender. Her research focuses on the political participation and attitudes of American gun owners. She is also a Policy Fellow at the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University and a member of Insight Kansas.
You can read Alex's piece here: Kansas is Bleeding But Not Broken: Disintegrating Democracy in the Free State — The Pulaski Institution
Dr. Luke Perry joins to talk about New York politics, with a focus the upstate regions away from New York City. Dr. Perry is Professor of Political Science at Utica University and Director of the Utica University Center of Public Affairs and Election Research. Perry’s recent books include The 2020 Presidential Election: Key Issues and Dynamics, The 2020 Democratic Primary: Key Lessons, Dynamics and Lessons for 2024, and Donald Trump and the 2018 Midterm Battle for Central New York.
His New York entry in our 50 Takes on Democracy series can be read here: Ever Upward: Vigilance Through Troubled Times in the Empire State — The Pulaski Institution
In the second of our 50 Takes on Democracy episodes, Dr. Kevin Baron of Austin Peay State University joins to talk about Tennessee. We discuss anti-CRT and anti-LGBTQ legislation, the state of Tennessee's education system, and the challenges of representation.
You can read Kevin's 50 Takes essay here: Cultivating Anti-Democratic Tendencies in Tennessee — The Pulaski Institution
In the first of our episode featuring authors from Pulaski's 50 Takes on Democracy series, Dr. Steven L. Taylor joins to discuss the state of things in Alabama. We talk about one-party dominance, gerrymandering, and the distortive effects of primaries on American politics. His 50 Takes essay can be found here: Alabama: Lack of Competition and Election Skepticism Down South — The Pulaski Institution
Steven L. Taylor, Ph.D. is a Professor of Political Science and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Troy University in Alabama. His areas of research include comparative democratic institutions and elections. His most recent book (co-authored with Matthew S. Shugart, Arend Lijphart, and Bernard Grofman) was A Different Democracy: American Government in a Thirty-One Country Perspective from Yale University Press. Steven writes on politics on a regular basis at outsidethebeltway.com and can be followed on Twitter at @drsltaylor.
On this episode, Jessica Pishko joins to talk about sheriffs—their history, politics, and institutional role in law enforcement in America.
Jessica Pishko is a lawyer and journalist who focuses on sheriff accountability. She graduated with a J.D. from Harvard Law School and received an M.F.A. from Columbia University. She practiced corporate law, specializing in securities fraud, and represented death penalty clients and victims of domestic abuse pro bono. She writes frequently about incarceration and social justice issues and lives in Dallas with her family.
Dr. Heather Yates (Acting Director of the Program on Nativism, Nationalism, and Populism at Pulaski) joins to talk about the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe and what it means for subnational democracy in America. We talk about the myths surround abortion, the political conditions in anti-abortion states, and what this all means for citizenship and freedom in the United States.
Dr. Stephen Knott joins us in an episode co-hosted by Dr. Heather Yates. Dr. Stephen F. Knott is a professor in the National Security Affairs Department. Prior to accepting his position at the War College, Knott co-chaired the Presidential Oral History Program at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. His books include “Secret and Sanctioned: Covert Operations and the American Presidency,” “Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance That Forged America” and “Rush to Judgment: George W. Bush, the War on Terror, and His Critics.” His most recent book is “The Lost Soul of the American Presidency: The Decline into Demagoguery and the Prospects for Renewal.” He is currently at work on a book on the presidency of John F. Kennedy.
Edward Goldberg is a Non-resident Fellow at the Pulaski Institution. He is a leading expert in the area of where global politics and economics intercept. He teaches International Political Economy at the New York University Center for Global Affairs where he is an Adjunct Assistant Professor. He is also a Scholarly Practitioner at the Zicklin Graduate School of Business of Baruch College of the City University of New York where he teaches courses on globalization. He is the author of "Why Globalization Works For America: How Nationalist Trade Policies Destroy Countries.” and "The Joint Ventured Nation: Why America Needs A New Foreign Policy”. He is a much-quoted essayist and public speaker on the subjects of Globalization, European-American relations, U.S.-Russian and China relations. He has commented on these issues on PBS, NPR, CBS, Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Hill, and the Huffington Post.
Edward joins to talk about the current moment in international politics and economics, one in which American hegemony is under fire and politics that oppose global trade and immigration are on the rise in many places. We talk about the values that underpin liberal internationalism and how the challenges America faces both at home and abroad affect its ability to shape that system into the future.
One of the topics that’s gotten more than a little traction in the last half decade is liberalism and, more specifically, whether or not liberalism and its ideas, its values, are in retreat. And that’s pretty important to us at Pulaski because really at the end of the day Liberalism, taken as its broad commitments to openness, pluralism, democratic accountability, and the movement of people and ideas and goods around the world and the idea that that’s good for us and our future really is at the heart of what we’re doing.
On one hand these concerns about whether liberalism is failing have been a question of leaders and institutions in terms of the commitments of our elected officials to open, accountable government and fair and equal justice, but it’s also, more broadly, been put as a question about democratic publics across the world—whether everyday people are really as invested as they used to be in the pluralism and democracy the way they once were. And a lot of these accounts can be quite grim in their predictions for our future. So I really wanted to take a kind of pragmatic approach and invite on two people who have been actively involved in the promoting liberal ideas in the public square. A brief disclosure here, both of our guests have had or maintain formal connections to the Liberal Democrat party in the United Kingdom. Pulaski is strictly non-partisan, and so their appearance here should not be taken as an organizational endorsement of the Liberal Democrats or their candidates. That said, I’m really excited to talk with them about the state of things in the United Kingdom, both in terms of Brexit and in the context of the wider political situation there and also to discuss the prospect for liberal ideas there and elsewhere.
Our guests today are Paul Hindley and Stephen Richmond.
Paul is a PhD student at Lancaster University in the UK. He researches the political economy of neoliberalism. He is a member of the Social Liberal Forum and has previously been a member of the Liberal Democrats. And he was the election agent for the Liberal Democrats in Blackpool South before leaving the party.
Stephen is a council member of the Social Liberal forum and Vice-Chair of Coventry Liberal Democrats. He was also previously the Liberal Democrat candidate for Parliament for Coventry South.
In this episode, Dr. Christopher Weaver and Dr. Andre Audette discuss the role many churches and congregations play across America in promoting and facilitation civic engagement. They also discuss research on the politicization of religion in America and the way this shapes the preferences of churchgoers in selecting where to worship.
Christopher Weaver is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Northeastern State University, as well as a non-Resident Fellow here at Pulaski. His research and teaching focus on American political behavior and identity politics. He is particularly interested in how identity and belief affect political behavior and public opinion, especially among religious groups and marginalized groups.
Andre Audette is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Monmouth College. He researches and teaches courses about religion and politics, law, identity politics, and political behavior.
Dr. Angie Maxwell is the Director of the Diane Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society and the holder Diane Blair Endowed Professorship the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She's the author, along with Todd Shields, of The Long Southern Strategy: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics. In this book—which is, I think, a really remarkable and essential work in American studies and for understanding both the South and American politics more generally—the "Southern Strategy" is presented as a longer historical event and one that's built on more than just Southern racial attitudes. In this conversation, we discuss the dynamics of Southern political identity and how the Republican Party's pursuit of political power in the American South has changed national politics and the Republican Party itself.
Dr. William Haden Chomphosy is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Hendrix College (Conway, AR) and a non-resident fellow at the Pulaski Institution. He joins today to discuss his research on abandoned oil and gas wells across the United States and the economics of restoring this land. We also discuss the potentials for carbon capture technology and the utility of revenue-neutral carbon pricing.
Dr. Heather Yates is an associate professor of political science at the University of Central Arkansas and an non-resident fellow at the Pulaski Institution. Her research centers on the intersection between emotions and political behavior. Join us for a ranging discussion looking at some of the big issues in our current moment through that lens. We talk about the emotional psychology underpinning the different responses to the coronavirus pandemic and vaccine rollout, the issues of trust in institutions and our politics, and crucially related to that, the Big Lie and the fallout from the January 6th insurrection.
John Hogan Morris, a non-resident fellow at Pulaski and Assistant Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Nottingham (UK), joins to discuss some current topics in British economics.
First, we discuss the Johnson government's Levelling Up agenda and its implications for Britain's regions.
Then, we talk about the United Kingdom's net zero goal and how this affects the country's industrial heartlands.
Finally, we talk bout the long haul trucker shortage and the challenges to post-Brexit Britain.