The

The Hello and welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood, the sanctioned by popular opinion

two guests today. The political scientist Larry Bartels will talk about the sources of the right

populist upsurge around the world, and the journalist and organizer Sopochoparidze will explain

the recent turmoil in Georgia, the country, not the state. Larry Bartels has been on this show

several times before, but it's been seven years

since his last appearance, which is too long. I find reading and listening to him really bracing.

His work really challenges some core beliefs about democracy. When I told him that he made me

doubt popular capacities for self-rule, he responded by calling it charming. His analyses of why

people vote the way they do

contradict a lot of academic and non-specialist explanations. Voters' decisions are often

very ill-informed and their opinions often deeply contradictory. His most famous finding, though

it's a controversial one, is that random events like shark attacks, drought, and floods can

affect elections.

Incumbents are often punished for things that are way beyond their influence, much less control.

Bartels has an article on the current issue of foreign affairs, the populist phantom,

which argues that the rise of right-wing populism, Trump, Orban, Le Pen,

is not driven by major changes in public opinion.

For Bartels, it's politicians that are

leading the way, or as the subtitle of the Foreign Affairs article puts it,

threats to democracy start at the top. It's hard to say whether that's comforting. It's good to hear

that the backlash isn't driven by growing mass rage, but on the other hand, the capacity of

...