Marlene Mauk is the author of Citizen Support for Democratic and Autocratic Regimes. Support for autocratic regimes is a neglected topic up until the last few years. We discuss why citizens support autocracies, democracies and what this means for advocates of democracy. We have an interesting discussion about the potential for democracy in Africa. Mauk finds Sub-Saharan Africa has significant support for democracy and enormous potential for further democratization and consolidation. We discuss some of the giants of political theory including Lipset, Dahl and Lijphart. Mauk has a firm background on traditional political science theory so it's a great discussion.This is my first interview. My microphone must have been turned off because the audio was picked up through the webcam. But the conversation is strong. Hopefully listeners look past some of the minor technical problems as I begin to launch this podcast!