
The Beautiful Game and the Fragile Democracy - with Political Scientist Cas Mudde
From The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History. by Philipp Gollner
April 13, 2026 · 1h 10m · Season 4 · Episode 75
About this episode
The episode features political scientist Cas Mudde discussing the intersection of soccer and fragile democracies.
Today's assistant professor has spent his career studying the forces that threaten liberal democracy — the far right, populism, nationalist movements that have reshaped politics from Hungary to the United States. He's one of the most cited political scientists working on those questions, based at the University of Georgia, originally from the Netherlands, and the kind of scholar who combines rigorous theory with an unusually grounded sense of how politics actually lives in people's lives. But...
People in this episode
Host: Philipp Gollner
Guest: Cas Mudde
Topics covered
- democracy
- politics
- populism
- nationalism
- soccer
- culture
Keywords
- liberal democracy
- far right
- populism
- nationalist movements
- soccer
- politics
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: University of Georgia
Places: Hungary, United States, Netherlands
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