India maintains the world's largest democracy with 75 years of continuous constitutional rule - yet international democracy rankings place it alongside countries with military coups and authoritarian regimes. What's really going on?
Former CIS executive director Tom Switzer sits down with author Salvatore Babones as part of the launch of his new book "Dharma Democracy: How India Built the Third World's First Democracy." Babones explores the unique model that enabled India to succeed where many post-colonial nations failed, arguing that Hindu religious and social reform movements created a distinctive civil society structure that Western political scientists have largely overlooked.
The conversation examines why India's democracy rankings don't reflect its actual performance and addresses one of India's single biggest challenges: integrating its 200 million Muslim citizens better into the democratic mainstream.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.