Global challenges to democracy

Guest speakers:
Dr. Bernardo Arevalo, Member of Congress (Semilla political movement), Guatemala; and Commissioner, International Commission on Inclusive Peace.

Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Columnist, Financial Times.

Paul Starr, Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, Princeton University.


Week 1 (19 April 2021)
Prologue: social solidarity and democracy

In addition to introducing the course, we consider the historical background to democracy, and its unusual characteristics in human history. We will also consider debates and various indicators as to its fragility in the global present.

Reading:
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2021: Democracy under Siege (linked)

Data sources:
https://ourworldindata.org/democracy
https://www.idea.int/data-tools
https://data.worldbank.org/


Week 2 (26 April 2021)
Democracy: cogs and wheels

Guest speaker: Dr. Bernardo Arevalo, Member of Congress (Semilla political movement), Guatemala; and Commissioner, International Commission on Inclusive Peace.

Title of his talk: "Challenges of democratic consolidation in Latin America"

In this week we will: a) dissect the concept of democracy itself, for example identifying its basic principles and assumptions of non-coercive rule; b) discuss an overview of the different paths to democracy, notably the Western path and that of non-Western societies; c) overview the global challenges to democracy, which we will develop in detail over the following weeks.

Reading:
Charles Tilly, Democracy, chapter 3: "Democratization and De-democratization"


Week 3 (3 May 2021)
Globalization: Economic, Political and Cultural Challenges

Globalization, from about the 1980s, generated ongoing, distinct economic, political and cultural challenges for democracies. We consider, this week, important cases of such challenges.

Reading:
David Jacobson, Of Virgins and Martyrs: Women and Sexuality in Global Conflict, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013, pp. 111-125 (on the "Tribalism Index" and on the Islamist resistance).

Christopher Lasch, "The Revolt of the Elites", Harper's Magazine, November 1994 (extract from the book of the same name).
John Cassidy, "Piketty's Inequality Story in Six Charts," New Yorker, 26 March 2014.


Week 4 (10 May 2021)
Populism, protest and global digital media

Populist movements and parties, together with the related weakening of the political center, are posing challenges for governance in a number of key democracies. Protests and related social movements for an extended period now--well before more recent anti-racism protests--and have been expanding significantly and have even been said to have crossed into "popular insurgencies." These developments are conjoined developments in global digital media and technology. They have led to significant challenges to the relationship between the "governors" and the governed in many democracies. We will make a wide-ranging analysis of this dynamic phenomenon.

Reading:
Martin Gurri, The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium (selection).
Yascha Mounk, The People vs. Democracy (selection).

Optional reading: Foucade and Gordan, "Learning Like a State: Statecraft in the Digital Age", J of Law and Economy, 1, 1 (2020)


Week 5 (17 May 2021)
Global risk society: health, disease and climate change

We will engage the assessment of "risk" and its control as a central justification of the modern state and in contemporary democracies. The session will consider, in this light, global developments in which individual states have limited control. We will consider in particular health issues (notably the example of Covid-19).

Reading:
Ulrich Beck, "Introduction: Staging Global Risk", in his World Risk Society, pp.1-23

Katarina Giritli Nygren & Anna Olofsson (2020), "Managing the Covid-19 pandemic through individual responsibility: the consequences of a world risk society and enhanced ethopolitics", Journal of Risk Research, 23:7-8, 1031-1035,

Sarah Dryhurst et al (2020), "Risk perceptions of COVID-19 around the world", Journal of Risk Research, 23:7-8, 994-1006.



Week 6 (24 May 2021)
Migration, refugees and human rights
Migration and refugees have had a fundamental impact on democracies, domestically and internationally, in recent decades, generating both challenges and opportunities. Domestic politics, civic society, the character of citizenship, and the evolution of "borders" have all been shaped profoundly by migration. Furthermore, the development of the human rights institutions and legal structure has also been significantly shaped by migratory trends, with impacts on citizens as well as migrants. We will address these issues in this session.

Reading:
David Jacobson and Jamie Goodwin-White, "The Future of Postnational Citizenship: Human Rights and Borders in a Re-Nationalizing World," Mondi Migranti, 2: 7-27 (2018).

David Jacobson and Galya Ruffer, "Courts Across Borders: The Implications of Judicial Agency for Human Rights and Democracy," Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 25, no. 1, February 2003, pp. 74-93.


Week 7 (31 May 2021)
Global contexts and international environments

Guest speaker: Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Columnist, Financial Times

Title of the talk: "The Age of the Strongman and the erosion of liberal democracy"

Reading:
Gideon Rachman, introduction to his book, Zero-Sum Future: American Power in an Age of Anxiety.

Gideon Rachman, introduction to his book, Easternisation: War and Peace in the Asian Century.


Week 8 (7 June 2021)
The Institutions of Democracy and their Challenges

Guest speaker: Paul Starr, Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, Princeton University.

Title of the talk: "Entrenchment: Wealth, Power, and the Constitution of Democratic Societies"

Reading:
Paul Starr, Entrenchment: Wealth, Power, and the Constitution of Democratic Societies, 2019 (selection).


Week 9 (14 June 2021)
Insecurity: A return to increasing violence in society?

After decades of decline in homicide rates and civic strife, signs are evident of an uptick in some democracies. We engage the challenges for democracy in these trends.

Reading:
Manual Eisner, "From Swords to Words: Does Macro-Level Change in Self-Control Predict Long-Term Variation in Levels of Homicide?" Crime and Justice 43 (1), 2014.


Week 10 (21 June 2021)
Conclusion: Can we reinvent citizenship and recover democracy?

This session opens discussion to consider the ways to move forward, and how to respond to the multifaceted challenges to democracy--and ways citizenship can be "reinvented" (while building on empirical developments).

No reading for this week.