#05 - David Stasavage - The History of Democracy and Innovation : Islamic World, China, and Europe
The Innovation Civilization PodcastShow Notes
We're joined by the Dean of Social Sciences at New York University and Professor of Political Science David Stasavage (@stasavage) who wrote the recent book (The Decline and Rise of Democracy). We talk about:
- the first principles and definitions of what we exactly mean by 'democracy' - a compressed summary of the origins, and pre-17th century non-European early forms of democracy in the Islamic world, China, Africa. - democracy, institution-building, and state development in early Rashidun Caliphates, Umayyads and Chinese empires. - Does adopting democracy automatically lead to more economic development and innovation? - The reasons for the development of late democracy in Europe. - The reasons for development of the democratic model in the United States. - Technology and the future of democracy in the world.
Follow our host Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) for more updates on tech and civilization.
Here are the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players, you should be able to click the timestamp for the episode.
(00:00) - Episode intro and key moments
(04:55) - Why David wrote a book on the history of Democracy across different regions?
(05:52) - Definitions and first principles of Democracy.
(07:10) - Is democracy a consensus-based system?
(07:45) - First principles of early vs modern democracy
(08:58) - Examples of early democracy across the world
(09:32) - Compressed summary of the origins of democracy till today
(11:20) - The role of democracy between 7th and 13th CE Islamic world
(14:08) - How decentralised system of governance made democracy possible?
(15:15) - Democratic process of the early Rashidun caliphates
(16:30) - Standardization and unification of democratic policies
(17:11) - How is China's political development different from the rest of Europe and the Islamic world
(21:41) - How is democracy tied to the idea of economic development?
(24:30) - The role of democracy when it comes to technological innovations
(25:48) - Emergence of democracy in Europe
(28:09) - Why were Aristotle's democratic discussions more popular in Europe than in the rest of the world
(29:31) - Impact of Aristotle's democratic theory on early Europe
(30:23) - Does democracy help reduce inequality?
(35:50) - What is bureaucracy?
(37:49) - Mixtures model of democracy
(39:25) - Are there hierarchies in a modern democracy?
(41:54) - Does democracy change forms?
(45:04) - Is autocracy deeply rooted in the culture of political and state development?
(47:14) - Development of the democratic model in the US and the future of democracy
(49:48) - Outro
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