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Essential qualities for robust democracies.
In this episode, Jonathan Fortier talks with Brook Manville and Josiah Ober about their recent book, The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives (Princeton, 2023). Manville and Ober identify essential qualities for robust democracies, and explore how ancient Athens, republican Rome, parliamentary Britain, and the American Founding each struggled to develop and maintain key practices and institutions to preserve their political orders.
Josiah Ober is the Mitsotakis Professor of Political Science and Classics at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, specializing in ancient and modern political theory and history. He has authored several notable books, including The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives and The Greeks and the Rational.
Brook Manville is an independent consultant and author, previously a partner at McKinsey & Co., with a background in media, technology, and non-profit management. He has written several notable books, including The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives, named a “Best Book of 2023” by The New Yorker, and A Company of Citizens: What the World’s First Democracy Teaches Leaders About Creating Great Organizations.