Democracy Works22 Jun 2020

How to end democracy’s doom loop

As we bring this season of Democracy Works to a close, we’re going to end in a place similar to where we began — discussing the role of political parties in American democracy. We started the season discussing the Tea Party and the Resistance with Theda Skocpol and Dana Fisher, then discussed presidential primaries with David Karol and the role of parties in Congress with Frances Lee.

All of those episodes looked at the party system as it currently stands. This week’s conversation invites all of us to imagine how we can break out of the status quo and create something very different.

Lee Drutman is a senior fellow in the Political Reform program at New America. He is the author of Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America and The Business of America is Lobbying, and winner of the 2016 American Political Science Association’s Robert A. Dahl Award, given for “scholarship of the highest quality on the subject of democracy.” He has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Drutman is also the co-host of the podcast Politics in Question, and writes for the New York Times, Vox, and FiveThirtyEight, among other outlets. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California.

We have one more new episode next week before we take a summer break. We’ll close the season with the second annual Democracy Works listener mailbag.

Additional Information

Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America

Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop audiobook

Politics in Question podcast

Political Reform at New America

Uniting for Action America – registration deadline July 31

Related Episodes

Does Congress promote partisan gridlock?

Primaries, parties and the public

How the Tea Party and the Resistance are upending politics

Your guide to ranked-choice voting

Congressional oversight and making America pragmatic again

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