Parhaat UCL Political Science Podcastit (2024)

1
Decoding the 2024 US Election: What it means for America and the World 1:13:28

10d ago1:13:28

1:13:28

- Meet the speakers - Dr. James D. Boys is a Boston-based analyst focused on US political history. He was most recently a Visiting Research Scholar at the Center for Strategic Studies at Tufts University’s Fletcher School. An expert on US politics and grand strategy, he frequently shares his insights as an on-air commentator on CNN, BBC News, Sky N…

1
Dissecting the 2024 US Election 35:08

2d ago35:08

35:08

One week after the US elections, Donald Trump has claimed victory, securing the presidency, the Senate, and almost certainly – though not yet confirmed – the House of Representatives as well. This sweeping win over Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party has ignited widespread discussion: what went wrong for the Democrats, and what lies ahead for bo…

1
Policing The Permacrisis 34:20

9d ago34:20

34:20

In recent years, policing in England and Wales has appeared to be trapped in a cycle of crisis. From high-profile scandals to criticisms of operational standards, concerns about the police’s role and conduct have intensified. Perhaps most shockingly, a serving police officer was convicted of the murder of Sarah Everard, a tragedy that underscored t…

1
Priorities for the new UK Government: Economic growth (and its limits) 1:14:21

12d ago1:14:21

1:14:21

Recorded 24 October 2024. A new government has been in power in Westminster since July. In our Policy & Practice mini-series, Priorities for the new UK Government, we will explore key issues on which the government is—or ought to be—focusing its attention. In the first event in this miniseries, we discuss the Government's central focus: economic gr…

1
Unpaid Reparations And Expropriation 28:59

16d ago28:59

28:59

There have been longstanding calls for reparations to address the profound injustices of colonialism and compensate for the vast extraction of resources from colonized nations. However, with few recent exceptions, these demands for reparations have largely been ignored by the former colonial powers. So, what comes next? Over the past two decades, r…

1
The Security Council's Role in International Conflict: Why Small-State Diplomacy Matters 1:14:36

23d ago1:14:36

1:14:36

For our first Policy & Practice seminar of academic year 2024-2025 we were joined by ex-Ambassador Simona Leskovar. The ex-Ambassador talked about her own experience both in trying to get Slovenia elected to the UN Security Council, but also more broadly about her experience in the UK and within the UN. The talk included a discussion as to why smal…

1
Mission-Driven Bureaucrats 41:52

23d ago41:52

41:52

The state of public services is a pressing issue both in the UK and globally. News headlines are frequently dominated by stories of chronic failures and acute crises. In response, politicians often propose solutions involving more targets, tighter rules, and increased oversight. When confronted with challenges, their instinct is often to exert more…

1
French Social Democracy In Turmoil 36:06

1M ago36:06

36:06

In a turbulent political summer, few surprises were greater than that caused by French president Emmanuel Macron’s decision in June to call early parliamentary elections. Macron’s party had just been trounced in the European Parliament elections; and victory for the far right seemed likely. In the end, thanks to some last minute deals, Marine Le Pe…

1
Outdoor Learning And The Politics Of Hope 27:25

1M ago27:25

27:25

In this episode, host Dr Emily McTernan is joined by Professor Cathy Elliot from UCL’s Department of Political Science to explore the politics of hope in the face of the climate crisis and the role of outdoor learning in cultivating that hope. Amidst growing climate anxiety, especially among younger generations, Prof. Elliot offers a hopeful perspe…

1
The Age Divide in Contemporary Politics 34:53

4M ago34:53

34:53

Age appears to structure voting patterns in democracies around the world more today than ever before. One poll conducted before the UK’s recent general election found that just 4% of 18-24 year olds intend to vote Conservative, compared to 33% of those aged 65 or older. Big age divides are evident on the European continent as well, though not alway…

1
How War Makes States 39:03

5M ago39:03

39:03

The late great sociologist and political scientist Charles Tilly said that ‘war made the state and the state made war’. Fighting and winning wars was, he argued, a crucial part of the story of how modern states built their bureaucratic capacity and their ability to do all the things that we want states to do. But this so-called ‘bellicist’ account …

1
The Political Feasibility Of A Just Climate Transition 39:37

5M ago39:37

39:37

Action to address climate change is essential. But the effects of such action are often imbalanced: the benefits are diffuse and long-term, while the losses are often frontloaded and concentrated amongst certain communities. That imposes two kinds of challenge: - the idea that some people, such as workers in fossil fuel industries, might face highe…

1
Opinion Polls 54:18

5M ago54:18

54:18

In the run up to the UK General Election we have a secial episode on opinion polls. Opinion polling is a staple of modern elections, captivating political enthusiasts with fluctuating numbers but also sparking controversy. Polls are sometimes criticized for inaccuracies, notably in the Brexit referendum and the 2016 US presidential election. Pollin…

1
What’s Wrong with Neocolonialism? 31:45

5M ago31:45

31:45

Neo-colonialism concerns the actions and effects of certain remnant features and agents of the colonial era. One way in which neocolonialism can be seen is through unequal patterns of cultural goods between the Global North and Global South. Debates surrounding cultural globalization have traditionally divided proponents of free trade and cultural …

1
The Role of Information in State-Building 32:13

5M ago32:13

32:13

One of the most basic questions regarding any state is 'can it act?' Does it have the capacity, that is, to uphold the rule of law and to deliver security and public services? For a state has the capacity to act it needs information on its citizens. You can’t tax someone or assess their eligibility for services if you don’t know who or where they a…

1
Public Attitudes To The Economy 34:07

6M ago34:07

34:07

We're celebrating another inaugural lecture today and welcome the fantastic Professor Lucy Barnes. Lucy has made a career out of breaking new ground in the field of Political Economy. Economic policy clearly matters to us all. The view that the state of the economy is the primary driver of election results is often taken as a given. But we can only…

1
Should Russian Assets Be Seized? 30:44

6M ago30:44

30:44

Ukraine's ongoing struggle against the Russian invasion incurs an annual cost of approximately $50 billion, with projections indicating that post-war reconstruction will require at least half a trillion dollars. Western nations, primarily the EU and the US, have assumed much of this financial burden. In February, the EU pledged 50 billion euros, wh…

1
Should Experts Set The Fiscal Rules? 32:25

7M ago32:25

32:25

We’re back from our Easter break, and since we were last on the airwaves a book has been published by a certain former UK Prime Minister arguing – among other things – that elected politicians are unduly constrained by unelected technocrats, and that ministers should be freed from such fetters in order to enable them better to represent the will of…

1
The UK Healthcare Crisis 45:01

8M ago45:01

45:01

The NHS is currently in crisis: record numbers of people are on waiting lists, there are serious staff shortages, buildings and equipment are outdated, and research indicates that patient satisfaction is at rock bottom. There does not seem to be much optimism about the UK’s current health system and the NHS’s public support may be waning. Beyond cl…

1
Responding to Civilian Harm in Millitary Conflicts 33:05

8M ago33:05

33:05

Armed conflict is all too common around the world today. One of the consequences of conflict is that civilians are harmed. Military forces – if they respect basic moral and legal standards – seek to avoid those harms so far as they can. But sometimes they will fail in that. So how should armed forces and governments respond when they cause unintend…

1
Do Protests Affect What Politicians Say? 32:56

8M ago32:56

32:56

Protest is a fundamental part of democracy. From thousands attending pro-Palestine marches in London, to farmers driving their tractors into Paris, Berlin, and Cardiff, to Just Stop Oil spraying UCL’s famous portico orange – protests are rarely out of the spotlight. But what do protests actually achieve? Do they affect political debate and policy o…

1
Settling Disputes Between Governments and Investors 38:13

9M ago38:13

38:13

In the wake of the 1917 Russian Revolution, the new Bolshevik regime, keen to destroy the power of global capital, expropriated the commanding heights of the Russian economy and repudiated a mountain of foreign debt incurred by the Tsar. That action left thousands of international investors out of pocket. But addressing their claims proved exceptio…

1
Death Threats and Online Content Moderation 31:27

9M ago31:27

31:27

Death threats, on the face it, appear to be exactly the sort of content that an online platform ought to censor – or ‘moderate’, as the preferred and obscuring term has it. Surely it is impermissible to threaten someone’s life and surely it is appropriate for online spaces like Facebook – or now Meta – to remove such speech. But what if the stateme…

1
E3: Chris Watkins on existential risk and paths to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) 1:34:21

9M ago1:34:21

1:34:21

How far away are we from creating AI systems whose capabilities rival our own? And would doing so pose an existential risk? In this episode, we speak to Chris Watkins, Professor of Machine Learning at Royal Holloway, University of London. Professor Watkins introduced the hugely influential Q-learning algorithm during his PhD at Cambridge, which, wh…

1
E2: Lewis Griffin on how Large Language Models (LLMs) could be used for political influence 1:23:34

9M ago1:23:34

1:23:34

Will Large Language Models (LLM) allow states to wage propaganda campaigns of unprecedented scale and persuasiveness? Or is this just another moral panic about new technology? In this episode, we talk with Lewis Griffin, Professor of Computer Vision at UCL. He has recently found some evidence that humans and LLMs can be persuaded in similar ways, a…

1
E1: Marc Deisenroth on AI for science and the future of work 1:01:22

9M ago1:01:22

1:01:22

How can AI help mitigate the climate crisis? What are the advantages of simple models such as Gaussian Processes? And what will AI mean for the future of work? In this episode, we talk with Professor Marc Deisenroth, DeepMind Chair of Machine Learning and AI at UCL, and Deputy Director of the UCL Centre for Artificial Intelligence, where he leads t…

1
Managing Diversity Amongst the EU Member States 39:08

9M ago39:08

39:08

For around a decade, the EU – which was founded by the principles of freedom, democracy and the rule of law – has been struggling to contain anti-democratic developments in some member states. More broadly, the European Union faces a challenge of how to create unity, and yet accommodate the significant political, social, and economic diversity of i…

1
The Battle for LGBT+ Rights 40:42

9M ago40:42

40:42

One of the most remarkable transformations over recent decades has been the growing acceptance and celebration of LGBT+ rights. Here in the UK, for example, the proportion of respondents to the British Social Attitudes survey saying that same-sex relationships are not wrong at all has risen from just 11 per cent in 1987 to 67 per cent a generation …

1
How Parliaments Question Prime Ministers 37:22

10M ago37:22

37:22

How parliaments hold ministers (particularly prime ministers) to account is a fundamental part of parliamentary democracy. And one of those mechanisms of accountability involves asking questions. We take a good hard look at how – and how effectively – parliaments question prime ministers. We are joined by Dr Ruxandra Serban, Associate Lecturer in D…

1
The Future of Power-Sharing in Northern Ireland 40:31

10M ago40:31

40:31

Peace in Northern Ireland is widely recognised as one of the leading achievements of politics in recent decades. The Good Friday, or Belfast Agreement, reached in 1998 by the British and Irish governments and most of the main Northern Ireland political parties brought an end to thirty years of violent conflict in which over three and a half thousan…

1
Improving Public Services 36:08

11M ago36:08

36:08

The quality of public services – whether health, education, water supply, or sewage disposal – has a big impact on all of our lives. How to enhance that quality is therefore one of the big questions for political studies. Professor Marc Esteve is one of the leading experts on exactly that issue. We have recorded this special episode of our podcast …

1
Russian Discourses of Sovereignty 34:46

12M ago34:46

34:46

Analysts of Russia’s war in Ukraine have often – since its inception in 2014 – highlighted a seeming contradiction. On the one hand, Russia is violating the sovereignty of a neighbouring state in pursuit of its own interests. On the other, Russia simultaneously condemns Western interventions in places such as Syria, Iraq, and Libya, as well as Serb…

1
Historical Research in Political Science 33:56

12M ago33:56

33:56

Political science is centrally concerned with understanding how politics works. It’s a discipline of the present tense, and the bulk of our research focuses on gathering evidence in the here and now. But sometimes political scientists also dig into the past. From time to time, you’ll even find one of us trawling through the records in a dusty archi…

1
Climate Change Loss and Damage 39:39

12M ago39:39

39:39

Our guest today is Professor Lisa Vanhala. A Professor in Political Science here at UCL and an expert on the politics of climate change. Lisa recently gave her inaugural lecture: Governing the End: The Making of Climate Change Loss and Damage, offering a fascinating insight into the way that UN meetings and negotiations over climate change get fram…

1
'Acts of speech' and how people recieve them 33:35

1y ago33:35

33:35

Today we are examining speech acts and uptake. A central contribution from J. L. Austin has been the idea that our speech sometimes doesn’t only say things – sometimes it does things. When we speak, we don’t only convey content or information. We sometimes also - for instance - promise, name, refuse, or order: in short, our speech sometimes acts. A…

1
The Domestic Politics of IMF Lending 34:36

1y ago34:36

34:36

The book that we’re discussing in this episode suggests that IMF funding becomes a resource held by local leaders, which those leaders can use to benefit their own supporters to the detriment of the rest of the population. The book – called IMF Lending: Partisanship, Punishment, and Protest – has two authors, and we are joined by both of them. - Dr…

1
The Politics of Migration 36:56

1y ago36:56

36:56

Immigration is a hot political issue in many countries. Its economic and social costs and benefits are widely debated. The people who are most directly involved in it or affected by it are often highly vulnerable, meaning that policy debate ought to proceed with care and caution. Yet it’s often used as a political tool by one or other side, as camp…

1
But What Can I Do? In Conversation With Alastair Campbell 1:00:52

1y ago1:00:52

1:00:52

Political Strategist, New European editor-at-large, mental health campaigner and co-host of the country’s Number 1 podcast, The Rest is Politics, Alastair Campbell came to UCL for a special opening event of the UCL Department of Political Science's Policy & Practice seminar series for 2023-24, in partnership with the UCL European Institute and UCL …

1
Fiscal Transparency And The Public Purse 30:17

1y ago30:17

30:17

During the recent pandemic, unprecedented public spending was required to help tackle the deadly disease and minimise its economic fallout. But faced with heightened uncertainty, rapidly changing conditions, and imperfect information, fiscal transparency was perhaps not at the forefront of politicians’ minds when making important public investment …

1
Backyard Housing And The Dynamics Of Collective Action 35:57

1y ago35:57

35:57

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 suboptim…

1
Taking Offence 45:51

1y ago45:51

45:51

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 per…

1
BONUS EXTRA: Overcoming the Green Blur by Lea Wowra 11:53

1+ y ago11:53

11:53

In this bonus extra episode, we depart from our usual themes to hear from UCL student, Lea Wowra, on her experiences of overcoming Plant Awareness Disparity and why we all should learn the names of plantsKirjoittanut Lea Wowra

1
The State of US Politics 34:15

1+ y ago34:15

34:15

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 …

1
Resisting Colonialism 36:50

1+ y ago36:50

36:50

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 ide…

1
Honouring the Career of Professor Albert Weale 36:05

1+ y ago36:05

36:05

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 an…

1
The Impact of Banning Protests 39:49

1+ y ago39:49

39:49

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…

1
How Can We Fix Our Democracy? 39:47

1+ y ago39:47

39:47

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 r…

1
Political Constitutionalism and Referendums: The Case of Brexit 33:08

1+ y ago33:08

33:08

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,…

1
How can we fix our democracy? 1:07:59

1+ y ago1:07:59

1:07:59

Our democratic system is not working as well as it should: on this, both the public and most experts agree. But what exactly are the problems? What are the pros and cons of the potential solutions? And are such changes feasible? Drawing on recent Constitution Unit research into public attitudes to democracy, as well as his own work on electoral sys…

1
Democracies and LGBTQ Rights 36:36

1+ y ago36:36

36:36

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…

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