Challenges to liberal democracy have been on the rise over the past decades. As a result, democracy is no longer the “only game in town” even in the European Union. Executive aggrandizement, the deterioration of the rule of law, distrust in officeholders, affective and ideological polarization, and the partisan use of state power all signal the weakening of the institutions and the political culture underpinning democracy. Meanwhile the values and achievements of liberal democracy are also questioned from the left and the right. Increasingly leading to vicious culture-war conflicts, the rise of neo-authoritarian ideological alternatives undermines the previously established liberal democratic consensus in Europe and beyond.
AUTHLIB is launching on October 20, 2022, at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, with a public conference discussing these trends and seeking potential responses to defend democracy in Europe.
Speakers include Zsolt Enyedi and Michael Ignatieff (Central European University), Thomas Carothers (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), Staffan Lindberg (University of Gothenburg), Mieke Verloo (Radboud University), and Marlene Wind (University of Copenhagen).
You may join us in person or follow the discussion via AUTHLIB’s Facebook page,
Find further details about the program here.
