Episode 51: Democratic Ceilings: Why democracies can stagnate.

Studies about democracies in the last eight years or so have focused on democratic recession or backsliding.  Yet, there are democracies that do not regress but instead stagnate.  We discuss an academic article that suggest that some democracies hit their ceilings and do not progress further because of the legacy of nationalist polarization that persist.

Reference:

Aram Hur and Andrew Yeo. 2024. Democratic Ceilings: The Long Shadow of Nationalist Polarization in East Asia. Comparative Political Studies 57(4): 584-612.