The first panel of the conference will include the following presentations:
9:15 am - 9:30 am Welcome by Daniel Ziblatt and Michael Zürn
9:30 am - 11:00 am Presentations
Daniel Ziblatt and Michael Zürn – Two Types of Constraints of Majorities
Christoph Möllers – Where is the Majority in the Counter-Majoritarian Difficulty? Reflections on a Dubious Category
Melissa Schwartzberg – Protecting Interests Under Majority Rule
The panelists will lay the conceptual groundwork for understanding how majorities can be constrained in democratic systems. They will explore various normative justifications for majority-constraining mechanisms, such as the protection of minority rights, the role of expertise, and the safeguarding of political stability. Their papers will offer, at a high level, different ways of conceptualizing ways majorities are constrained in democratic politics. Their papers will explore normative justifications of this, different institutional forms, and/or explore their empirical consequences.
When are constraints on majorities justifiable from a democratic point of view? Which institutions are, and which, not? And what are the consequences of different types of constraints on majorities for the stability and resilience of democracy?
This conference brings together European and American political scientists, legal scholars, and political theorists in a series of panels to discuss the consequences of majority-constraining institutions on democracy. For a full conference program, see here.
