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Welcome to States of Democracy!

1m 8s
In this new podcast brought to you by PBS/WNET's Preserving Democracy initiative, join host Molly Enking as she speaks with public media reporters in each of our fifty states about local politics, voting measures, and elections.
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American Democracy's “Achilles Heel”

5m 20s
Experts discuss one of American democracy’s biggest vulnerabilities: race relations. This isn’t solely a contemporary tension within our democracy; it’s been present since the founding of the country, then a young nation deeply invested in the slave trade. Racial divisions were written into American laws; racial violence was tolerated.
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“We don't want just the veneer of a democracy”

8m 45s
The U.S. wasn’t the first democracy, nor is it the first nation to have issues with it. Struggles are inherent to the democratic process, experts explain, and America is at a critical turning point. “Very few countries have had stable democratic rule for a long time,” says Princeton Historian David Bell. “Democracy can be very fragile.”
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America’s long, bitter fight for equal voting rights

4m 26s
Experts discuss the extraordinary tool of accountability voting can be. But for a long time in America, that right was only available to a select group of people—and this was by design. The ability to vote was and is one of the most powerful non-violent tools citizens can use to change their everyday lives. “The fiercest fights of our history have been to keep other people from voting.”
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Political violence throughout American history

6m 21s
“Mobs trying to overturn democratic elections are not necessarily new in American history, but it has happened enough that we have to realize it's a symbol of a problem with democracy,” says Columbia University Eric Foner. “Or, a problem with people accepting the legitimacy of everybody having a say in our political democratic system.”
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How the two major U.S. political parties formed

6m 30s
President George Washington famously warned against forming political parties, cautioning the nation in his farewell speech as he left office. He predicted that they would sew divisions within America that foreign enemies could manipulate or take advantage of. Today, experts warn of the increasing danger of political parties not immediately accepting election outcomes.
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“Most democracies die at the ballot box”

4m 1s
India, Brazil, Poland, Hungary, Hong Kong, and other states throughout the world have in recent years seen an erosion of democracy as populist leaders take control of countries, both through elections or sometimes through violent coups. “You've seen countries that had tentatively reached towards democracy after the fall of communism, most importantly, Russia, which have fallen back."
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Democracy’s strange compromise

6m 12s
Experts discuss how the American Revolution united the states against the common enemy of the British monarchy, versus how Abraham Lincoln’s election and the Civil War brought our democracy and the nation to its brink. “They didn't claim that Lincoln hadn't really won and had stolen the votes,” says Eric Foner. “They just said, we don't accept this.”
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The “hall of mirrors” of social media and misinformation

6m 3s
As new levels of connectivity impact and distort political conversations and participation, experts examine how new media and social media are changing politics and journalism as we know it. “Conflict and upheaval and even violence, I think, go hand in hand with a kind of lawless informational space where people don't really know the same truth,” says Johns Hopkins Historian Lilliana Mason.
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Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) Discusses Jan. 6, 2021

1m 36s
Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) Discusses January 6, 2021 with Margaret Hoover, host of PBS' "Firing Line with Margaret Hoover." He explains that in the days before the deadly riot at the United States Capitol, he was getting death threats and other threatening messages that directly targeted him.
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Preserving Democracy Preview

30s
Follow the pursuit of democracy from the Revolutionary War through recurring cycles of civil rights progress and backlash, the 2021 Capitol riot and beyond. Explore the impact of voter rights and a civics curriculum on engaged and informed citizens.
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