Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science and director of the MacMillan Center at Yale University, with Frances McCall Rosenbluth (Damon Wells Professor of Political Science at Yale University), he's written the book "Responsible Parties: Saving Democracy from Itself."
In recent decades, democracies across the world have adopted measures to increase popular involvement in political decisions. Parties have turned to primaries and local caucuses to select candidates; ballot initiatives and referenda allow citizens to enact laws directly; many places now use proportional representation, encouraging smaller, more specific parties rather than two dominant ones.Yet voters keep getting angrier.There is a steady erosion of trust in politicians, parties, and democratic institutions, culminating most recently in major populist victories in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.
Frances Rosenbluth and Ian Shapiro argue that devolving power to the grass roots is part of the problem. Shapiro joins us.
