The 2020 Election and What Not: Polarization, Democracy, and Democrats

Jadaliyya Co-Editor and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University Bassam Haddad interviewed Jennifer Nicoll Victor, Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, about the 2020 US Presidential Election. The series “The 2020 Election and What Not” is part of the Schar Conversations Podcast, which can be accessed here.

In this conversation, Jennifer Victor discusses the nature of polarization in the United States and its effects on the health of democracyHow this provides signals into the health of democracy. She also addresses the prospects of a rich(er) conversation and debate if the Democrats win, as well as what might they do with that authority.

 

 

Those unable to access the video via Facebook can watch it via Youtube. 

Jennifer Nicoll Victor is an associate professor of political science at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She is an expert on the US Congress, American political parties, campaign finance, political networks, lobbying, and partisan polarization in the United States. She is the past president of the National Capital Area Political Science Association, serves on the Board of Directors for the Center for Responsive Politics, is the lead co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Political Networks, and her political analysis is widely published and broadcast by various media outlets. You can take her course, “Understanding the US Government,” at The Great Courses Plus.

 

Bassam Haddad is Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of the forthcoming book, A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Forthcoming, Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves on the Board of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences and is Executive Producer of Status Audio Magazine. Bassam is Co-Project Manager for the Salon Syria Project and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI).  He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book tittled Understanding The Syrian Tragedy: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).