Curated Video
Modelling Politics
Tufts University philosopher Brian Epstein describes how key aspects of his philosophical views of the social world can be directly applied to politics, explaining that to understand politics, it is vital to consider what led people to...
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Measuring Democracy
UCSD Chinese Studies specialist Karl Gerth describes how the standard view that “America is democratic and China isn’t”, while hardly entirely incorrect, doesn’t really bear up under careful scrutiny.
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Making Better Decisions
Political scientist Josiah Ober describes how we might concretely improve our ability to make political decisions within a democratic framework, highlighting so-called deliberative and epistemic approaches to decision-making.
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Limited Tolerance?
Historian and Chinese Studies specialist Karl Gerth (UCSD) muses on the impact of China's socialist past on current levels of income inequality.
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Leading By Example
UCSD Prof. of Chinese Studies Karl Gerth describes how the West should set a better example in a number of key public policy areas in its dealings with China, and how a close examination of China can help us improve as well.
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Investigating Corruption
Tufts University philosopher Brian Epstein describes how carefully developing a model of bureaucratic corruption can lead to identifying key factors that traditional social science models will necessarily overlook.
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Energy Renaissance
University of Michigan business school professor Andrew Hoffman relates how we are currently in the midst of an energy renaissance and muses on ways in which we might be able to make change happen even faster.
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Different Domains
UC Berkeley historian Martin Jay contrasts the political domain with the scientific one, explaining that it’s important to recognize that the two are distinct, believing it would be a very bad idea to try to recreate politics in the...
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Descriptions vs. Explanations
UC Berkeley political scientist Mark Bevir describes how it is important for both political theorists and policymakers to recognize the difference between a description and an explanation.
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Democratic Challenges
Classicist and political theorist Josiah Ober (Stanford) argues that the success of classical Athenian democracy was consistently challenged by aristocratic elites such as Plato or Aristotle.
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Democracy Examined
Chinese Studies specialist Karl Gerth (UCSD) examines the subtleties involved in what it means to be a democracy.
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Democracy and Rights
Political scientist Mark Bevir (UC Berkeley) highlights the trade-off we must make between a democratic process and fundamental rights.
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An Epistemic Democrat
Classicist and political theorist Josiah Ober (Stanford) looks back to Aristotle's view of human flourishing to appreciate the benefits of democracy.
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Against the Iron Law of Oligarchy
Classicist and political theorist Josiah Ober (Stanford) describes his belief that classical Athens is a counter-example to the so-called “Iron Law of Oligarchy”.
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Against Reification
Political scientist Mark Bevir (UC Berkeley) argues that we need to move beyond reification of abstract concepts and recognize intentionality.
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Political Character
Philosopher Brian Epstein (Tufts) uses the example of electoral control models to highlight problems with model-building.
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Giving the Law to Yourself
Intellectual historian Quentin Skinner (QMUL) describes how, in the neo-Roman understanding of freedom, being free from arbitrary power necessitated participatory citizenship.
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Democracy as a Contrast Idea
Political theorist John Dunn (Cambridge) describes how democracy originated as a political idea in contrast to monarchy and aristocracy.
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Creating the Social World
UC Berkeley political theorist Mark Bevir describes his belief that, rather than passively describing the world around us, social science actually plays a key role in creating our social world.
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Creating a Car Culture
Karl Gerth, Professor of History and Hsiu Chair in Chinese Studies at UC San Diego, relates the policy decisions behind the the rapid rise of the automobile in China.
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Conceptual Rigor
Political scientist Mark Bevir (UC Berkeley) describes how too many people associate rigor primarily with methodology rather than basic thinking.
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Chinese Social Inequality
UCSD Chinese Studies specialist Karl Gerth ruminates on whether the Chinese have the same amount of tolerance for social inequality as Americans have and relates that many young Chinese feel that they don’t have access to good jobs even...
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Changing Societal Values
Political scientist Mark Bevir (UC Berkeley) examines the evolution of societal values, taking as an example our notions of sexuality.
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Behind the Bureaucrats
Philosopher Brian Epstein (Tufts) describes how our models of bureaucratic corruption often fail to include initial selection processes.