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Event Series

Democracy and Its Critics Initiative

 



Over the past decade, democracy has been under siege in Europe and the United States. The disruptions caused by the rise of polarization and radical right forces, triggered by economic instability, demographic shifts, and technological change represent deep challenges to the basic patterns of democratic governance that we have taken for granted for decades. The disruptions bind the transatlantic world together and raise fundamental questions: How should we understand this tumult? What is causing it? What are the responses to it? These questions have given rise to shared and parallel debates about the promise and peril of democracy across Europe and in the United States.

The Democracy and its Critics Initiative was launched by the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) to focus on both the history and contemporary shape of democracy in Europe, and provide a platform for events, conferences, and research on these pressing issues.

The first event launched on September 19 with a keynote address by CES Senior Fellow Michael Ignatieff, who delivered the inaugural Václav Havel Lecture on Human Rights, Civil Society and Democracy.

The Initiative's inaugural conference titled "Balancing Majority and Minority Rights - The Dilemma of Majority-Constraining Institutions in an Age of Democratic Backsliding" will take place on February 28.

The Center is also host a series entitled “Questions of Fascism and Democracy,” which will be co-chaired by CES Resident Faculty Peter Gordon & CES Director Daniel Ziblatt. The series will host the following speakers:

  • Federico Marcon (Princeton University)
  • William E. Scheuerman (Indiana University)
  • Michelle Lynn Kahn (University of Richmond)
  • Lenka Bustikova (University of Florida)
  • Federico Finchelstein (The New School for Social Research)
  • Katie Ebner-Landy (Harvard University)
  • Jeffrey Kopstein (University of California, Irvine)
  • Stephen Hanson (William & Mary)
  • Eugene Finkel (Johns Hopkins University)

This series is a CES-wide initiative, and we welcome proposals, suggestions, and collaborations from anyone in the CES community. Please contact the Center Directors Daniel Ziblatt and Elaine Papoulias.

Events Calendar

Intent to Destroy: Russia's Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine Questions of Fascism and Democracy Lecture Series — Intent to Destroy: Russia's Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine
April 15, 2025
4:00pm - 5:30pm
  • Eugene Finkel – Kenneth H. Keller Professor of International Affairs, Johns Hopkins University, School of Advance International Studies
  • Serhii Plokhii – Mykhailo Hrushevskyi Professor of Ukrainian History, Harvard University; Director, Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University
  • Chair Daniel Ziblatt – 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
The University in the Age of Authoritarianism: Past, Present, and Future Democracy and Its Critics Initiative & Weatherhead Initiative on Global History — The University in the Age of Authoritarianism: Past, Present, and Future
April 17, 2025
4:00pm - 5:30pm
  • Sugata Bose – Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs, Department of History, Harvard University
  • Laura Jakli – Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
  • William C. Kirby – T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies, Harvard University; Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
  • Chair Sven Beckert – Laird Bell Professor of History, Harvard University; Faculty Associate, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University and Daniel Ziblatt – 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
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