IPED CFR Series: Defining Democracy

Join us for a Council on Foreign Relations Academic Conference Call with Yascha Mounk, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a professor of international affairs at Johns Hopkins University, a contributing editor at the Atlantic, and the founder of Persuasion. Known for his work on the rise of populism and the crisis of liberal democracy, Mounk published in 2022 The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure, an optimistic case for the future of ethnically and religiously diverse democracies.

Mounk also authored three previous books: Stranger in My Own Country: A Jewish Family in Modern Germany, a memoir about Germany’s fraught attempts to deal with its past; The Age of Responsibility: Luck, Choice and the Welfare State, which argues that a growing obsession with the concept of individual responsibility has transformed western welfare states; and The People vs Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is In Danger and How to Save It, which explains the causes of the populist rise and investigates how to renew liberal democracy.

Mounk frequently writes for newspapers and magazines, including Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He is also a regular columnist or contributor for major international publications, including Die Zeit, El Pais, Letras Libres, l’Express, Folha de Sao Paolo, Kultura Liberalna, and La Repubblica, and hosts “The Good Fight” podcast.

Born in Germany to Polish parents, Mounk received his B.A. in history from Trinity College, University of Cambridge and his Ph.D. in government from Harvard University.