General

May 4, 2023

Democratizing Democracy: Is More Democracy Always Better?

By Jorge Rojas-Vallejos[*] Over the past decade, Chile experienced two monumental political reforms. Under the old rules, the country’s two main political blocks, Concertación (center left) and Chile Vamos (center right), jointly dominated congressional representation after the country’s return to democracy in 1990. Yet, they both spearheaded changes that weakened their political oligopoly. The…

July 9, 2022

UW Political Economy Forum hosts former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best

On July 14th, 2022 the UW Political Economy Forum hosts former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best for an author meets critics event where we’ll discuss her new book, “Black in Blue: Lessons in Leadership, Breaking Barriers and Racial Reconciliation.” The first African-American woman to hold the top policing job in Seattle, Washington, Chief Carmen Best (Ret.) served…

July 6, 2021

Is Silicon Valley upending Democracy? w/Carles Boix

Beginning in the 1970s, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs commercialized a set of information and communication technologies that revolutionized almost all aspects of our lives. Personal computers, the internet, and smartphones created new industries such as digital platforms and cloud computing that continue to power advanced economies. Might the forces unleashed by these technologies undermine the post War…

June 15, 2021

Free Speech: an Instrumental Defense of the Marketplace of Ideas

This piece is forthcoming in “Divided we Fall” By Victor Menaldo Traditional defenses of free speech revolve around limiting the government’s ability to infringe on citizens’ expression and association. They also center on treating free speech as an unalloyed right, something sacrosanct, no matter the consequences. Here, I depart from this orthodox approach. On the…

Wittstock & Martin on Innovation to Fight Climate Change

It has now become a platitude: technological innovation is the key to human prosperity. COVID-19 has demonstrated this once again: global research networks and swashbuckling pharmaceutical companies (incentivized, regulated, and nudged along by governments, of course) gave us several vaccines in record time—most of them using entirely new techniques such as mRNA technologies. What about…

May 31, 2021

Forum Podcast – “Improving democracy through debate” with Mark Alan Smith

In this episode, Professor Mark Alan Smith of the University of Washington speaks to Forum Fellows Morgan Wack and Nicolas Wittstock about reforming democratic political institutions. Specifically, they discuss the concept of deliberative democracy – which seeks to create institutionalized opportunities for citizens to discuss and debate political issues. Improving Democracy through Debate Books and…

April 26, 2021

Forum Podcast “Can Taxes Improve Politics?” – with Jonathan Weigel

Guest: Jonathan Weigel, Assistant Professor of International Development at LSE In this episode, Dr. Jonathan Weigel of the London School of Economics discusses his work on taxation and state capacity with Forum Affiliate Morgan Wack. Throughout the episode Jonathan discusses his work aimed at improving the efficacy of tax collection efforts alongside officials in the DRC. He details the…

April 21, 2021

Menaldo & Wittstock’s new working paper

Victor Menaldo and Nicolas Wittstock wrote and posted a new working paper: Bidenism as Trumpism 2.0: America’s Bipartisan Embrace of Neo-Mercantilist Policies and What this Entails A hefty dose of nationalism infuses Build Back Better, U.S. President Joe Biden’s economic policy priorities. Echoing Trump’s Make America Great Again promises, it embraces a zero-sum logic regarding…

April 12, 2021

Forum Podcast “Invention, Innovation, and the British Industrial Revolution” with Anton Howes

Guest: Anton Howes – Historian of Innovation In this episode, Anton Howes – head of innovation research at The Entrepreneurs Network, discusses the history of invention in Britain with host Nicolas Wittstock. Anton argues that Britons were infected with an “improving mentality” some time in the 15-hundreds. As a result, inventors created networks, shared…

Victor Menaldo interviewed on PBS segment “Cancel Culture”

In this PBS segment, Prof. Victor Menaldo is interviewed on the topic of Cancel Culture. Northwest Now | Cancel Culture | Season 12 | Episode 24 | PBS