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In this episode of Purple Political Breakdown, host Radell Lewis sits down with Dr. Bernd Reiter, political scientist and Professor of LusoLatin American Studies at Texas Tech University, for a wide-ranging conversation about the crisis of representative democracy, extreme wealth inequality, and what it would actually take to fix America's political system.
Dr. Reiter brings a unique international lens to American politics. Born and raised in Germany, he's lived and researched across Colombia, Brazil, and the United States, and has held positions at the University of South Florida, Harvard University's Afro-Latin American Research Institute, and the Barcelona Institute for International Studies. A Fulbright Distinguished Chair and the author of nearly 100 publications including The African Origins of Democracy (Routledge, 2025) and the forthcoming Status: Honor and White Privilege in Brazil and Beyond (Routledge, 2026) Dr. Reiter's work centers on democracy, race, and decolonization, drawing lessons from the Global South to challenge how we think about political systems.
Together, Radell and Dr. Reiter tackle pressing questions: Why are people so disconnected from local politics? Should we rethink career politicians and embrace term limits? Can civic education fix political polarization? What would "legal duty" a jury-duty-style system for lawmaking actually look like? And in a country on the verge of seeing its first trillionaire, is it time to talk about upper limits to wealth?
From the Swiss model of direct democracy to the Roman Republic's accountability structures, from deliberative polling at Stanford to the town hall meetings of Vermont this conversation explores real alternatives to the political dysfunction Americans are living through.
Whether you lean left, right, or purple, this episode challenges you to think beyond partisan blame and toward practical, systemic solutions.
Connect with Dr. Bernd Reiter: TEDx Talk (2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViPwZA-baWg Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Bernd-Reiter/author/B001JOVEB0 Texas Tech Faculty Page: https://www.depts.ttu.edu/classic_modern/people/spanish/Reiter_Bernd.php
Topics covered: democracy crisis, wealth inequality, billionaire tax, civic education, political polarization, local politics, direct democracy, term limits, deliberative democracy, oligarchy, equality of opportunity, decolonizing politics, Global South perspectives, career politicians, civic engagement, political participation, representative democracy reform
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Professor
Bernd Reiter is a political scientist and Professor of Luso–Latin American Studies in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures at Texas Tech University. He has held distinguished international appointments, including serving as a Fulbright Distinguished Chair of Public Policy and Fulbright Specialist in Brazil, and as Erasmus Mundus Visiting Professor at the Barcelona Institute for International Studies. In 2020–21, he was a Research Associate at the Afro-Latin American Research Institute at Harvard University, and from 2018 to 2020 he directed the Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean at the University of South Florida. He is the editor of the Routledge Decolonizing the Classics book series and Section Editor-in-Chief of Social Sciences. His recent publications include Status: Honor and White Privilege in Brazil and Beyond (Routledge, 2025) and The African Origins of Democracy (Routledge, 2026). Reiter’s research centers on democracy, race, and decolonization, combining comparative politics with historical and ethnographic analysis to challenge Eurocentric narratives and highlight contributions from the Global South.
