Democracy: Clarifying the Muddle: A Conversation with John Dunn

Over the last decade or so, University of Cambridge political theorist John Dunn has been thinking increasingly deeply about the historical development and current significance of democracy in different parts of the world.

To an outsider, this might seem like an obvious activity for any political scientist to be engaged in. But Dunn assures us otherwise: “Doing this sort of thing is not the way to build a solid academic career. I started doing it after mine was already built and I could do what I liked. And what actually turned out to be true about it was very disconcertingly different from the way people normally see it and speak about it.”

We met up with John in Cambridge, England to try to get a better understanding of what democracy is and is not.