Larry Bartels, the Vanderbilt political scientist who wrote “Democracy for Realists” and “Democracy Erodes from the Top,” joins Terms of Engagement to explore the question, is Democracy eroding from the top?
Everyone agrees that democracy is in trouble. But almost everyone disagrees on why. Larry Bartels, the Vanderbilt political scientist who wrote “Democracy for Realists” and “Democracy Erodes from the Top,” has spent two decades arguing that the story we tell ourselves about democracy – that informed voters guide government and policy from the voting booth – is a myth. A corollary of his rejection of the “folk theory” of democracy is that the real threats to democratic institutions come from political elites, not from an angry, radicalized public.
In this episode, we ask Larry about his analysis now, in 2026, when the U.S. has been downgraded to “electoral democracy” (from liberal democracy) by V-Dem, Hungary’s Orbán has just lost power, and right-wing populist parties hold hundreds of new seats across Europe. We talk with Larry about the elite-driven backsliding thesis. And what – if anything – can ordinary citizens do when the people who are supposed to be accountable to us are the ones doing the damage?