We're joined by the Dean of Social Sciences at New York University and Professor of Political Science David Stasavage (@stasavage) who wrote the recent book (The Decline and Rise of Democracy). We talk about: - the first principles and definitions of what we exactly mean by 'democracy' - a compressed summary of the origins, and pre-17th century non-European early forms of democracy in the Islamic world, China, Africa. - democracy, institution-building, and state development in early Rashidun Caliphates, Umayyads and Chinese empires. - Does adopting democracy automatically lead to more economic development and innovation? - The reasons for the development of late democracy in Europe. - The reasons for development of the democratic model in the United States. - Technology and the future of democracy in the world.  Follow our host Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) for more updates on tech and civilization. Here are the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players, you should be able to click the timestamp for the episode. (00:00) - Episode intro and key moments (04:55) - Why David wrote a book on the history of Democracy across different regions? (05:52) - Definitions and first principles of Democracy. (07:10) - Is democracy a consensus-based system? (07:45) - First principles of early vs modern democracy (08:58) - Examples of early democracy across the world (09:32) - Compressed summary of the origins of democracy till today (11:20) - The role of democracy between 7th and 13th CE Islamic world (14:08) - How decentralised system of governance made democracy possible? (15:15) - Democratic process of the early Rashidun caliphates (16:30) - Standardization and unification of democratic policies (17:11) - How is China's political development different from the rest of Europe and the Islamic world (21:41) - How is democracy tied to the idea of economic development?  (24:30) - The role of democracy when it comes to technological innovations (25:48) - Emergence of democracy in Europe (28:09) - Why were Aristotle's democratic discussions more popular in Europe than in the rest of the world (29:31) - Impact of Aristotle's democratic theory on early Europe (30:23) - Does democracy help reduce inequality? (35:50) - What is bureaucracy? (37:49) - Mixtures model of democracy (39:25) - Are there hierarchies in a modern democracy? (41:54) - Does democracy change forms? (45:04) - Is autocracy deeply rooted in the culture of political and state development? (47:14) - Development of the democratic model in the US and the future of democracy (49:48) - Outro