Democracy Under Pressure? Contemporary Discussions on Challenges and Dangers to Representative Democracy - Einzelansicht

This seminar aims to enable students to critically assess the many items that discuss current threats and potential malfunctions of representative democracies worldwide. After spending the first sessions of the seminar for understanding and discussing different definitions and conceptualizations of democracy, we will focus on a variety of contemporaneous challenges to the working of democracy, such as

• declining turnout and political dissatisfaction
• affective polarization among voters
• the emergence of populist politicians and political parties
• the rise of the radical right
• democratic backsliding in the European Union
• direct vs. representative democracy
• challenges to developing democracies
• the power of the media
• democratic responsiveness and climate change

Dahl, R. A. (1989) Democracy and its critics. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Haggard, S. and R. Kaufman (2021) Backsliding. Democratic Regress in the Contemporary World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Van Ham, C., J. Thomassen, K. Aarts, and R. Andeweg (2017) Myth and Reality of the Legitimacy Crisis. Explaining Trends and Cross-National Differences in Established Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Przeworski, A. (2020) Crises of Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Registration for this seminar takes place via the electronic learning platform PULS during the official enrolment period.

The course requirements will be announced at the beginning of the seminar.