Today we return to the 2025 Camden Conference for a talk by David Stasavage: “What Is Democracy, How Did It Start, and When Does It Prosper?” followed by “Drivers of National Populism,” from Matt Goodwin.
David Stasavage is a political scientist known for his work on democracy and political economy. He is the author of The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today (Princeton, 2020). Deemed “one of the most important books on political regimes written in a generation” by Steven Levitsky, New York Times–bestselling author of How Democracies Die.
Matt Goodwin is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics, and the Sunday Times bestseller National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy. He co-authored the UK’s 2015 Political Book of the Year, Revolt on the Right. He is also the author of the 2nd biggest Substack blog in the UK and the 5th biggest in the World Politics Substack leaderboard.