“I think that it’s not always understood that the ultimate day-to-day working of elections, like on the ground, facilitating, making sure somebody can vote, is done by your neighbors.”

In this last episode of the season, on Democracy in the United States, Nicola Sharratt describes her experiences as an election worker in Fulton County in Georgia, we debate just how pervasive corruption is in US civic and political life, and the impact of guns on college campuses. Nicola provides a fascinating perspective on life and democracy in the US, given her experiences as both a duel-citizen, and an archaeologist with an 800 year perspective on how societies deal with conflict and inequality.

What Democracy Looks Like In... is a podcast where ordinary voters explain how democracy works in their countries. In each episode an emigrant voter and a voter currently on the ground describe their lived experiences of democracy, of voting, and of trust versus corruption in their home country.

Find out more about the topics discussed in this episode and the series as a whole at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.democracyinpodcast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

“Oh, boy, the corruption. Even people who go and vote, whether they believe, whether they are skeptical a bit like me; they can still say it doesn't matter. Not because my vote doesn't matter but because eventually, when have we ever heard of a politician who had a promise that they kept?”

In Jun 2024, following the European Parliamentary Elections, I interviewed Federica Bressan and Piero Q.P. Carlucci about What Democracy Looks Like In Italy. Revisit this conversation on corruption, proportional representation, and alternative ways of cooperative democratic organization in Italian society that continue despite the breakdown in trust in national-level politics.

This week I am re-releasing all the interviews from this podcast in their full-length versions. This is in preparation for the last episode of the season, an interview with anthropologist Nicola Sharratt on Democracy in the United States. Look out for that interview, coming later in December 2024.

What Democracy Looks Like In... is a podcast where ordinary voters explain how democracy works in their countries. In each episode an emigrant voter and a voter currently on the ground describe their lived experiences of democracy, of voting, and of trust versus corruption in their home country. Find out more about the topics discussed in this episode and the series as a whole at ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.democracyinpodcast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠!