Professor for Comparative Politics, Goethe University; External Fellow, Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), University of Mannheim; Max Weber Chair in German and European Studies, NYU
Director, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies & Eaton Professor of the Science of Government, Harvard University; Unit Director, Transformations of Democracy, WZB Berlin Social Science Center
October 29, 2021
1:30pm - 3:00pm
Virtual/RSVP Required
Video recording
1h:28m
This seminar will focus on Michael
Koß's new book, Demokratie Ohne Mehrheit? (“Democracy Without
a Majority?”) which received widespread media attention in Germany
because of its provocative argument that the era of mass parties – the bulwarks of postwar democracy – may be over. How can democracy survive if its
primary carriers are disintegrating? Koß makes the case that the end of the
Cold War has precariously returned central European politics to the fractious roots that existed before WWII. The discussion has special relevance as negotiations are underway in the Federal Republic of Germany to create a three-party government coalition – a historic first.