Capitalism and Democracy

On April 9, 2026, MIT political scientist Kathy Thelen visited BESI to discuss the origins and implications of the new cloud business model powering the AI boom and how it differs from the traditional platform out of which it grew.

In this talk, Harvard political scientist Stephanie Ternullo explores the political tensions of suburbs that support liberal policies at the national level but sustain exclusionary housing and education policies at the local level.

On February 10, 2026, Stanford political scientist gave a talk on his book "Trajectory of Power: The Rise of the Strongman Presidency." He argues that Republican backlash to the progressive administrative state has motivated the party to seek a strongman presidency that governs unilaterally in defiance of democracy and the rule of law.

In this talk recorded at BESI on January 27, 2026, Boston University political scientist Erik Peinert explains the ever-narrowing group of companies that monopolizes American and international markets by dredging up the economic research, theories, and interests that motivated policy discussions at key moments during the 20th century.