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New Books in Political Science

New Books Network

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox:

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00:52:56

Democracy on the Edge: The Trump Elections and the...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/26

In Democracy on the Edge, leading political scientists John Kenneth White and Matthew R. Kerbel unravel the elections of 2020, 2022, and 2024 to show how each represented a flashpoint in the reordering of political priorities and electoral coalitions. The consequences have the potential to redefine our politics and shape our democracy for years to come. In 2020, American voters temporarily removed an authoritarian leader, only for this leader to instigate an insurrection attempt on January 6, 2021

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00:56:32

Driven to Their Knees: Humiliation in Contemporary...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/25

Humiliation pervades our politics, from images of stripped Palestinian men in Gaza to mocking chants at MAGA rallies. It suffuses pictures and videos, speaks through bodies as well as words, and is expressed by those with too much power as well as by those with too little. In Driven to Their Knees, Roxanne Euben takes readers from conflicts in the Arabic-speaking world to America’s divided public square, advancing a theory of humiliation rooted in the ways people articulate and enact it. Euben

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01:16:21

Aristotle Kallis, "Iconic Fascism: The Excess of...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/24

In Iconic Fascism: The Excess of Destruction and Creation in Interwar Radical Right-wing Politics(Bloomsbury, 2026)Aristotle Kallis uncovers the paradox at the heart of fascist politics: the simultaneous obsession with destroying and creating powerful symbols. This book demonstrates how fascists were simultaneously some of history's most passionate icon-lovers and most ruthless icon-breakers, wielding symbolic excess as both weapon and worship in their revolutionary project. Through a sweeping

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00:57:36

The Nature of Freedom: On the Republican Tradition...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/23

What is freedom? Benjamin Constant and Isaiah Berlin divided the answers to that question into two categories: the positive conception of the ancients (freedom to participate in political life) and the negative conception of the moderns (freedom from external constraints). But what if this dichotomy is a false one?My guest on Madison’s Notes thinks so. So in Episode 6 of Season 6, I interview the political philosopher, Philip Pettit. The L.S. Rockefeller University Professor of Human Values at

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00:55:41

The American Right in Ferment: A Conversation with...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/21

Even as Donald J. Trump keeps his tight grip on the Republican Party, conservative ranks are rife with sharpening tensions on both domestic and foreign-policy matters. I discuss this subject with Matthew Continetti, columnist for The Wall Street Journaland author of The Right: The Hundred Year War for American Conservatism(Basic Books, 2022). Conservative thinkers and political figures have different answers to festering questions such as how aggressively American should assert its role in the

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00:51:10

Stefano Recchia, "Strategies for Approval: Building...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/20

When powerful states go to war, why do they bother asking permission? In Strategies for Approval: Building Support for Military Intervention at the UN Security Council (Yale University Press, 2025), Stefano Recchia argues that the answer reveals something surprising about how power actually works.Drawing on hundreds of declassified documents and more than fifty interviews with senior diplomats, among them Andrei Kozyrev, Brent Scowcroft, and Colin Powell, Recchia shows that money and muscle are

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00:35:59

Brian L. Porto, "Twin States, Different Paths: The...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/19

At first glance, New Hampshire and Vermont seem like mirror images. Separated only by the Connecticut River, the oft-termed "Twin States" share a common history, relatively small populations, and heavily mountainous and forested landscapes dotted with small towns. Yet despite their similarities, they have evolved strikingly different political cultures, with Vermont prizing cooperation and community and New Hampshire celebrating independence and freedom from government. Perhaps nowhere is this

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01:23:45

Lily Geismer on the Democratic Party in the 1990s

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/16

In this episode, hosts Lee Vinsel and Ben Waterhouse, along with producer Joe Forte, chat with historian Lily Geismer. Their conversation covers the evolution of the Democratic party, what it means to study political science as history, and a bit about how a scholar’s work can emerge from their personal experience and identity. Lily is Professor of History at Claremont McKenna College and the author of Don’t Blame Us: Suburban Liberals and the Transformation of the Democratic Party (2015) and Left

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00:34:26

Why Voters Support Politicians Who Undermine Democracy

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/14

Why do so many citizens continue to support politicians who undermine democracy? And why have nationalist appeals become such a powerful tool for democratic backsliding? In this episode of the People, Power, Politics podcast, Nic Cheeseman talks to Filip Milačić about his new book, Abandoning Democracy for the Nation(Cambridge UP, 2026). Drawing on evidence from Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Israel and Turkey, Milačić argues that democratic erosion is often driven not simply by populism or polarization,

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01:08:24

Nora Fisher-Onar, "Contesting Pluralism(s): Islamism,...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/14

Contesting Pluralism(s):Islamism, Liberalism and Nationalism in Turkey and Beyond(Cambridge UP, 2024) challenges a widespread tendency to limit studies of Turkish - and Muslim - politics to 'Islamist vs. secularist' or 'Islam vs. democracy' debates. Instead, Nora Fisher-Onar's innovative argument centers on coalitions for and against pluralism. Retelling Turkey's story from the late Ottoman Empire to the present as a tale of pluralizing vs. anti-pluralist coalitions, this book offers an

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47:14

Michael E. Neagle, "Chasing Bandits: America's Long...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/11

While the war on terror has been America's largest and most publicized attempt to root out foreign enemies this century, the quest to identify and destroy real or imagined threats to national security has long been a part of US history.Drawing on six case studies, Professor Michael E. Neagle spotlights the commonalities of how the United States has leveraged popular understandings of "bandits" to justify incursions abroad as well as rally popular and political support at home.Chasing Bandits:

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00:49:35

William G. Howell and Terry M. Moe, "Trajectory of...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/10

Political Scientists William Howell and Terry Moe have a new book out that explores how the United States constitutional system has given way to the establishment of a kind of strongman presidency, disconnected in many ways from the constraints designed to keep the American president from becoming autocratic or dictatorial. Trajectory of Power: The Rise of the Strongman Presidency(Princeton UP, 2025)traces the expansion of the administrative state in the United States, which transpired during much

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53:20

William G. Howell and Terry M. Moe, "Trajectory of...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/10

Political Scientists William Howell and Terry Moe have a new book out that explores how the United States constitutional system has given way to the establishment of a kind of strongman presidency, disconnected in many ways from the constraints designed to keep the American president from becoming autocratic or dictatorial.Trajectory of Power: The Rise of the Strongman Presidency(Princeton UP, 2025)traces the expansion of the administrative state in the United States, which transpired during much of

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42:17

Voices from North Korea: Refugees Tell Their Stories

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/08

n this podcast, North Korean refugees who visited the University of Bradford share their harrowing experiences of life in North Korea, escape, and the challenges of building new lives in freedom. They are supported by Freedom Speakers International (FSI), a Seoul-based non-profit that helps North Korean refugees rebuild their lives through personalised English education, mentoring and public-speaking opportunities. Crucially, FSI enables refugees to tell their own stories in their own voices.Their

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24:23

Robert Shum, "Democracy or Carbon Oligarchy?: Climate...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/05

Democracy or Carbon Oligarchy?: Climate and Energy Politics between Crisis and Decarbonization(Palgrave Macmillan, 2026)tackles a critical question. Why has the world struggled so much to coordinate policy to address climate change, despite political and scientific consensus? Despite landmark agreements and expanding knowledge, emissions have fallen unevenly and progress has repeatedly stalled or reversed. Democracy or Carbon Oligarchy? explains that failure by focusing on domestic politics: how

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41:24

Meghan Garrity, "Mass Expulsion: The Politics of...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/05

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, governments around the world have expelled, en masse, more than 30 million people. Yet despite its prevalence, mass expulsion remains an understudied phenomenon as scholarly attention has been directed toward the gravest atrocities—genocide and mass killing—or toward forced migration more broadly.Mass Expulsion: The Politics of Forced Population Removal(Oxford UP, 2026) by Dr. Meghan Garrity examines why and how governments expel, providing a

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32:20

Nikhil Kalyanpur, "Legal Weapons of the Wealthy: The...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/04

In Legal Weapons of the Wealthy: The Offshoring of Elite Conflict in Emerging Markets (Cornell University Press, 2026), Dr. Nikhil Kalyanpur examines a striking feature of today's global legal order: the use of foreign courts by elites to settle domestic disputes. On the surface, the "outsourcing" of disputes by elites from countries with fragile judiciaries looks like a search for fair treatment unavailable at home. Yet extraterritorial dispute resolution varies across such countries. Russian

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51:47

Jieun Baek, "Privileged But Powerless: How North...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/04

What do the people closest to power really think about the system they serve? That’s perhaps one of the most important questions one could ask about North Korea, still one of the world’s least understood countries.Today, we’re joined by Jieun Baek, author ofPrivileged But Powerless: How North Korean Elite Grievances Reveal the Regime’s Greatest Weakness(Yale UP, 2026).She draws on in-depth interviews with North Korean elite escapees—from senior party cadres and diplomats to military officers and

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61:52

Jonathan Quong, "Political Philosophy: The Puzzle of...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/03

Can laws be unjust and yet remain, in some sense, morally legitimate? InPolitical Philosophy: The Puzzle of Legitimate Injustice(Princeton UP, 2026), Jonathan Quong considers central issues in political philosophy through the lens of this single question. He explores and evaluates recent influential work on this topic and then proposes a novel approach of his own. The puzzle at the heart of his account is the phenomenon of legitimate injustice—laws and policies that are substantively unjust yet may

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62:24

Michael Diniscia and Ellyn M Toscano eds. "Civility...

New Books in Political Science ·

2026/09/03

The idea of civility goes back to classical Rome and the ways in which citizens engaged one another within the republic. The term itself is often used in a number of different ways, reflecting expected behavior, particularly in public spaces, and as a mechanism to manage human interaction. But civility and the use of this idea often shape hierarchical relationships within society and within politics and may define who is to be included within the polis and who may be excluded. Thus, the

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