Interview between Professor Ira Katznelson and Cordier Fellow Samir Awad

View the entire interview

Or, you can view the interview question by question.


Introduction

Question 1
What has changed? When you were a student at Columbia College, you were a radical, probably, and now you are lecturing students on pluralism and liberalism. What has changed!?

Question 2
What does this liberal tradition have to offer the rest of the world, outside of western europe and america?

Question 3
Is the liberal tradition more focused, more interested in the relationship between the individual and the state or between the society and the state - the collectivity of individuals - and is there a way to indroduce community rights, community representation, into the mix?

Question 4
Is liberalism becoming hegemonic?

Question 5
Does a liberal democracy have to be a capitalist democracy?

Question 6
Do you agree that what is happening now through a process called democraticization of the world is that the procedural structure of a democracy is there, but not the liberal content?

Thank you