On this week’s episode of the Governance Podcast, our Director Prof. Mark Pennington, interviews Prof. Jennifer Murtazashvili from the University of Pittsburgh. This episode features her latest book Land, the State and War, published by Cambridge University Press. The book employs a historical narrative, extensive fieldwork and a national survey to explore how private property institutions develop, how they are maintained, and their relationship to the state and state-building within the context of Afghanistan. This episode also discusses the long running governance challenges in Afghanistan, and the recent problems associated with the actions of foreign powers.

On this week’s episode of the Governance Podcast, our Director Prof. Mark Pennington, interviews Dr Mikayla Novak from the Australian National University. This episode features her latest book Freedom in Contention: Social Movements and Liberal Political Economy, which explores social movement activities and outcomes through the lens of liberal political economy. Using historical and contemporary case studies, this book illuminates how social movements fluidly organise in often repressive environments to achieve freedom, equality, and dignity.

On this week’s episode of the Counterintuitive Series on the Governance Podcast, Professor Mark Pennington (King’s College London) argues that if not quite everything, then a great many things, ought to be legally for sale. From kidneys, to drugs, to sex, to votes, how much ought the market be allowed to freely trade in?

In the latest issue of the Governance podcast, Mark Pennington interviews Prakash Kashwan of the University of Connecticut. The conversation considers the political economy foundations of the Bloomington School with in-depth discussion on the role of power, institutions, and incentives in the analysis of common pool resource problems. 

What can early modern practices of duelling teach us about the contemporary ‘culture wars’ over identity politics? According to Dr Clif Mark, a lot more than you might think. Join us for this episode of the Counterintuitive Series on the Governance Podcast.

That we live in an era of ‘post truth politics’ has become a widespread mantra since the shock of the Brexit vote and the 2016 election of Donald Trump. But Matt Sleat (University of Sheffield) believes this is a mistake: politics is no more ‘post truth’ now than it has ever been. To understand what has been happening, we need to look elsewhere. Join us on this episode of the Counterintuitive Series on the Governance Podcast.

Diana Popescu (Department of Political Economy, King’s College London) joins the Counterintuitive Series of the Governance Podcast this week to argue that Universal Basic Income – the state giving money to everybody, for free, and unconditionally – is a realistic and desirable policy, one that governments around the world should take seriously. 

Given the upheavals unleashed by the Brexit referendum of 2016, many are now wary of direct democracy. But Jonathan Benson (Utrecht University) argues that to improve our current politics we need more, not less, direct involvement of the people in decision-making. Join us on this episode of the Counterintuitive Series on the Governance Podcast.

In the first episode of the Counterintuitive Series on the Governance Podcast, Professor Clare Chambers (University of Cambridge) defends the ideal of the marriage free state. She argues that for reasons of justice and equality, the state should not legally recognise – and therefore, privilege – any particular form of marriage. And until it ceases to do so, we must consider its actions unjust.

Why are political parties important for liberal democracy? Which institutional reforms can alleviate the burdens of globalisation on the working class? Join us on this episode of the Governance Podcast for a conversation between Steven Klein (King’s College London) and Ian Shapiro (Yale) on the major governance challenges facing advanced democracies and how they might be solved.

Join us on this episode of the governance podcast between Simon Kaye and Mark Pennington for a conversation on the impact of Elinor Ostrom’s work on public policy. Simon Kaye discusses his latest report for the New Local on how the ideas of self-governance and community power can transform public services in the UK.

David Skarbek (Brown University) describes his ethnographic work on prison governance as a historical analogy to the emergence of states. Join us on this episode of the Governance Podcast led by John Meadowcroft (King’s College London) for a vibrant discussion on how governance emerges (or doesn’t) in different social landscapes, from prisons and gulags to clans and nation-states.