Evan Lieberman on South Africa. Democracy in Hard Places

When you hear people talk in such disparaging tones, that everything is broken, that nothing is possible, you need to ask yourself, is that right? When you look around, the answer is no. There are these examples where things do go right, where people work together and create a neighborhood or a community for themselves in which they can be prosperous and build better lives. And that's really what the democratic project is all about.

Evan Lieberman

Support Democracy Paradox on Patreon for bonus episodes and exclusive updates and information.

A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.

Evan Lieberman is a Professor of Political Science and Contemporary Africa at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Director of the MIT Global Diversity Lab, and the faculty director of the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI). He is the coauthor with Rorisang Lekalake of the recent article "South Africa's Resilient Democracy" in the Journal of Democracy and author of the forthcoming book Until We Have Won Our Liberty: South Africa after Apartheid.

Key Highlights

• Why is Evan Lieberman optimistic about democracy in South Africa • Role of Nelson Mandela on South Africa's democracy • Importance of South Africa for democracy in the world • Account of the housing community Ethembalethu • What the 2019 election says about democracy in South Africa

Key Links

Until We Have Won Our Liberty: South Africa after Apartheid by Evan Lieberman

"South Africa’s Resilient Democracy" by Evan Lieberman and Rorisang Lekalake in Journal of Democracy

Learn more about Evan Lieberman at www.evanlieberman.org

Follow Evan Lieberman on Twitter @evlieb

Democracy in Hard Places edited by Scott Mainwaring and Tarek Masoud

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Dan Slater on Indonesia

Nic Cheeseman and Gabrielle Lynch on the Moral Economy of Elections in Africa

More Episodes from the Podcast

More Information

Democracy Group

Apes of the State created all Music

Email the show at [email protected]

Follow on Twitter @DemParadox

100 Books on Democracy

Learn more about the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at https://kellogg.nd.edu/ Support the show

Release date

Lydbog: 7. juni 2022