UCL Uncovering Politics

Many people in South Africa live in very unsatisfactory so-called ‘backyard dwellings’. But few take part in collective action to improve their lot. Why not?

This puzzle centres on the broader idea known to social scientists as the ‘collective action problem’, that people often struggle to work together to achieve a common goal, leading to suboptimal outcomes. This has long been explored by scholars and is ever-present in our lives: in explanations, for example, of low voter turnout, depletion of natural resources, and foot-dragging in action to tackle climate change.

Yet collective action problems can be overcome under certain conditions – think of successful strike actions or civil rights protests, or the effective management of some local shared resources. And political scientists are naturally keen to understand what these conditions are, seeking answers by analysing group dynamics in different settings.

To explore these questions, we are joined by Dr Adam Harris, Associate Professor in Development Politics here in the UCL Department of Political Science, and also an Associated Researcher with the Centre for Social Change at the University of Johannesburg.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Making Demands on Government: Theorizing Determinants of Backyard Residents’ Collective Action in Cape Town, South Africa. African Studies Review

This week we welcome Dr Emily McTernan, co-host of this podcast, into the guest seat. Emily is talking about her new book, On Taking Offence. In it, she argues that taking offence is an important and often valuable response to affronts against our social standing, and that it deserves to be taken more seriously by scholars than it has been (and perhaps less seriously than it might be seen by some sections of society).

Mentioned in this episode:

• On Taking Offence. Emily McTernan.

The soap opera of US politics rolls on. Joe Biden – the first octogenarian president – plans to run again in 2024. So too does Donald Trump, despite a series of ongoing legal cases against him

Beneath this surface, serious issues are at stake, around economic and climate policies, relations between the United States and China, the future stance of the US towards the war in Ukraine, and women’s rights and abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned. And there are major questions to ask about the health of US democracy itself. 

So, it’s high time we had one of our occasional reviews of the state of US politics. Joining us this week are the Co-Directors of the UCL Centre on US Politics:

- Dr Julie Norman, Associate Professor (Teaching) in Politics and International Relations,

- and Dr Thomas Gift, Associate Professor in Political Science, both in the UCL Department of Political Science.

Mentioned in this episode:

• CUSP - the UCL Centre on US Politics.

A common idea in academic theory and activism, as we start to move towards less unjust institutions, is that we need to decolonise things, from university curricula to museum collections. Following on from a brilliant event which took place last week at UCL, the UCL-Penn State Joint Conference on ‘Resisting Colonialism’, we are discussing these ideas with the three organisers. The conference ranged from discussions what to do about unpaid reparations, museum collections, and the monuments of colonisers; to decolonial approaches to immigration and theories of resistance. Joining us today to talk about some of these important ideas are:

Dr Shuk Ying Chan, Assistant Professor in Political Theory in the Department of Political Science at UCL, whose book in progress examines decolonisation as an unfinished project of global justice;

Dr Desiree Lim, Catherine Shultz Rein Early Career Professor and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Penn State, whose monograph “Immigration and Social Equality” is forthcoming at OUP;

and Dr Chong-Ming Lim, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Nanyang Technological University, whose published work examines, amongst other topics, uncivil political resistance, including the vandalising of commemorations.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Vandalizing Tainted Commemorations. Chong-Ming Lim.
• Transforming problematic commemorations through vandalism. Chong-Ming Lim.
• Immigration and Social Equality. Desiree Lim.
• Black Skin, White Masks. Frantz Fanon.
• The Wretched of the Earth. Frantz Fanon.

Our guest this week is Professor Albert Weale, Emeritus Professor of Political Theory and Public Policy at UCL. Following an event honouring his career on his retirement, in this episode, we’re exploring Albert’s life and work as an academic.

Over his career, Albert has published 20 books and more than 150 articles and book chapters on a diverse and impressive array of topics, from the politics of pollution, political legitimacy in the European Union and healthcare, to social contract theory and democracy. He has held faculty positions at Newcastle, York, UEA, Essex and, of course, for more than a decade, here at UCL.

The event held in his honour had an impressive 28 speakers, discussing the prospects for practical public reason, priority setting in healthcare and the best form of social contract theory, and motivating our tackling of climate change, among many other issues. It highlighted the sheer range, depth and importance of the contributions that he has made to the field, both as a political theorist and, above all, as perhaps the leading scholar of the intersection between political theory and public policy.

In this episode we’re exploring some of these contributions, looking back on a long and successful career.

Governments in many countries have powers to authorize – or not authorize – planned demonstrations. So what are the effects of such decisions? We might think the main effects are going to be on whether the demonstrations happen or not, but new research suggests that the impacts can be much subtler than that: they influence whether the demonstrators gain public support, with knock-on consequences further down the line.

The research, which will shortly be published in an article in the journal World Politics, has been carried out in Russia – a country where public attitudes towards those in power are clearly of great interest at the moment. It also has implications for other autocracies. And it might at least raise questions in democracies too – not least as the UK government’s powers relating to protests are increased.

We are delighted that Dr Katerina Tertytchnaya, Associate Professor in Comparative Politics here in the UCL Department of Political Science, joins us to discuss this research. 

In this episode we’re discussing elections, referenda, and how to fix our democracy, with none other than our long-time podcast host, Alan Renwick. In his inaugural lecture, Alan described democracy as rule for, and by, all, and suggested that the UK’s democratic system is falling short of that ideal. We discuss three suggested "fixes": electoral reform, improving citizen's access to reliable information, and the use of citizen's assemblies.

One of the central commitments in Prof Alan Renwick’s work is to the importance of the citizen, and our role in the democratic process. He is a leading expert on citizens assemblies, and his fourth book, Deliberative Mini-Publics examines how these can contribute to the policy process and even revitalise democracy. Most recently, Alan’s research examines the public’s attitudes about democracy, and democratic institutions, post Brexit. 

Mentioned in this episode:

• Democracy in the UK after Brexit.  The Constitution Unit, UCL
• Deliberative Mini-Publics: Core Design Features. Alan Renwick, Nicole Curato, David Farrell, Brigitte Geissel, Kimmo Grönlund, Patricia Mockler, Jean-Benoit Pilet, Jonathan Rose, Maija Setälä and Jane Suiter.
• A Citizen's Guide to Electoral Reform.

This week we welcome Professor Richard Bellamy back to the podcast. Richard has appeared twice before on the following topics: ‘Does the UK Still Have a Political Constitution’ (May 2021) and ‘Checks and Balances in Democracy’ (Oct 2020)

Richard is Professor of Political Science at UCL. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and, this academic year, is also Visiting Professor of Ethics and Public Policy at the Hertie School, Berlin.

Richard recently released a new paper, ‘Political Constitutionalism and Referendums: The Case of Brexit’, published in Social & Legal Studies, and a paper entitled ‘Political constitutionalism and populism’ in the Journal of Law and Society.

A special episode coinciding with this week’s International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.

It’s easy to assume that LGBTQ rights are more likely to advance in democracies than in non-democracies. Democracies are generally more open to diversity, and the countries with the strongest LGBTQ rights protection are democracies.

But new work by Dr Samer Anabtawi, Lecturer in Comparative Politics here in the UCL Department of Political Science, suggests that we shouldn’t be so sure. Through detailed research in Lebanon and Tunisia, this work finds that democracy is neither a sufficient condition for rights advancement, nor – perhaps more surprisingly – a necessary one. 

Mentioned in this episode:

• ‘Snatching Legal Victory: LGBTQ Rights Activism and Contestation in the Arab World’ Arab Law Quarterly

Despite Putin’s expectation of a swift victory, over one year on from his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, that country’s defenders are still fighting – and, indeed fighting back. 

One important area in which Ukraine has managed to stay ahead of Russia is in military technology.

A new report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change examines the role of military technology in the Russia–Ukraine war, and considers the lessons that can be learnt from it. 

One of the authors, Dr Melanie Garson, Associate Professor in International Conflict Resolution & International Security here in the UCL Department of Political Science, and also Acting Director of Geopolitics and Cyber Policy Lead at the Tony Blair Institute, joins us today to discuss intelligent warfare, military technology and AI.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Software and Hard War: Building Intelligent Power for Artificially Intelligent Warfare (Nov 2022) Tony Blair Institute for Global Change