Challenges to Democracy in Europe Speaker Series
Fall 2023 Events
Soviet Collapse in the Fullness of Time: Lessons for Putin's Russia, Xi's China, and Beyond | September 13, 2023
Wednesday, September 13 at 5:00 PM
Clark Hall, 700
A recording of this event is available here.
Description
What lessons have Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping drawn from the Soviet collapse, and what lessons are they failing to draw? Renowned historian Stephen Kotkin, Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and Professor in History and International Affairs emeritus at Princeton University, will talk about how we might see the Soviet collapse, looking back more than three decades. Was the collapse predictable? Did a new world order emerge, and is one emerging now? Could such a collapse be repeated? How can we use history to illuminate the present, and potential futures, and when does history fail us?
Speakers
Stephen Kotkin, Stanford University
The Return of the Native: Can Liberalism Safeguard Us Against Nativism?| October 2, 2023
Monday, October 2 at 5:30 PM
Uris Hall, G08
Description
This talk, based on the 2022 book with the same title, explores how diverse phenomena, such as populism, anti-black racism, and islamophobia in various countries share the same core: nativism. It Includes an in-depth, original analysis of political developments in three countries: the US, France, and the Netherlands, some of the most liberal countries in the world, and shows why liberalism is not a safeguard against the rise of nativism. The talk offers a distinct approach from alternate explanations of the rise of far-right nativist discourses.
Speakers
Jan Willem Duyvendak, University of Amsterdam
"Your Past is My Present": The Case of Ukraine | October 5, 2023
Thursday, October 5 at 12:00 PM
Uris Hall, G08
Description
Seeking international support to counter Russia’s February 2022 invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly addressed foreign politicians and public in several democratic nations. Media coverage paid special attention to his explicit comparison of Ukraine’s current situation to salient historical events in the audiences' countries. Since public opinion can influence foreign policy decisions in democracies, we investigate whether evoking the past of the audience's country effectively increases popular support for aiding Ukraine.
Speakers
Anil Menon, University of California, Merced
Coping with Defeat: Sunni Islam, Roman Catholicism and the Modern State | October 20, 2023
Friday, October 20 at 3:00 PM
Uris Hall, G08
Description
This lecture, based on the book with the same title, presents a historical panorama of the Islamic and Catholic political-religious empires and exposes striking parallels in their relationship with the modern state. Drawing on interviews, site visits, and archival research in Turkey, North Africa, and Western Europe, Jonathan Laurence demonstrates how, over hundreds of years, both Sunni and Catholic authorities experienced three major shocks and displacements—religious reformation, the rise of the nation-state, and mass migration. As a result, Catholic institutions eventually accepted the state’s political jurisdiction and embraced transnational spiritual leadership as their central mission. Laurence reveals an analogous process unfolding across the Sunni Muslim world in the twenty-first century.
Speakers
Jonathan Laurence, Boston College
How Russia's Invasion of Ukraine is Changing Europe | October 26, 2023
Thursday, October 26 at 12:00 PM
Uris Hall, G08
Description
Mitchell A. Orenstein, Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, will discuss how Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 changed Europe. It shattered any remaining illusions that the EU could achieve peaceful coexistence with Russia through greater integration and united Europe instead around NATO. While Europe quickly reshaped its energy strategy and imposed unified sanctions on Russia, the invasion revealed Europe's continuing reliance on the United States for basic security and initiated a period of soul searching about Europe's lack of "strategic autonomy." Central and East European states that had long warned of Russia's violent intentions rose in importance, while France and Germany saw their influence diminished after decades of accommodating Russia. European leaders had to admit that they had been wrong to ignore the warnings of front-line states. In addition, the invasion reignited European Union and NATO enlargement, with Finland and Sweden joining NATO and Ukraine and Moldova offered EU candidate status. The result of these trends is a more geopolitical Europe with a sharper dividing line between an internal zone of integration and an external zone of power projection.
Speakers
Mitchell Orenstein, University of Pennsylvania
Authoritarian Near Miss: The Future of the Polish Democracy after the Populist Defeat | November 30, 2023
Thursday, November 30 at 4:30 PM
Uris Hall, G08
Description
The resounding victory of the Polish opposition on October 15 bewildered many comparative political scientists. The loose coalition of liberals, leftists, and Christian Democrats defied international trends by out-competing the ruling Law and Justice party (“PiS”) in a barely free and grotesquely unfair ballot held eight years after PiS’s 2015 ascent to power. The speakers – prof. Maciej Kisilowski of Central European University in Vienna and prof. Anna Wojciuk of the University of Warsaw – will discuss the significance of the Polish election while resisting the temptation to declare an(other) democratic “end of history.” Instead, they will focus on what can be done to minimize the risk of a future authoritarian recurrence.
Speakers
Anna Wojciuk, University of Warsaw
Maciej Kisilowski, Central European University
Past Events
Panel: Nationalism Unsettled | April 28, 2023
Description
Nationalism Unsettled presents a critical exploration of national imaginaries that disturb, defy or deviate from mainstream nation-state narratives, demanding renewed consideration of the nature of nationalism. In tackling this subject, we bring to the table speakers with cross-disciplinary expertise, spanning history, sociology, geography and the arts, and consider case studies spanning the Caribbean of the late 18th century, China under Mao, and contemporary Venezuela and Russia. At a time when nationalism globally is being re-energized through shifting and newly affecting forms, we invite you to join us in taking a deep dive into this vital subject, harnessing the power of a comparative perspective.
Speakers
Ernesto Bassi, History
Mara Yue Du, History
Irina R. Troconis, Romance Studies
Leila Wilmers, Sociology
Discussant
Begüm Adalet, Government
This event was hosted as part of the Einaudi Center's democratic threats and resilience research priority. It was co-sponsored by Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the East Asia Program.
Negotiating Diversity in Expanded European Public Spaces| April 17, 2023
Description
The question of diversity and integration has occupied public debates, political agendas and social sciences for decades. In Europe, an important issue pertains to the settlement of post-immigrant ethno-religious groups, along with the expression and organization of collective identities; claims for participation/representation and recognition; the role of religion in public space; and the increasing influence of diaspora and transnational politics. Our point of departure is that these questions cannot be properly addressed without at the same time taking into account the multilevel character of the European public space they unfold within, the multiple characters of the groups (some identified by national origins, others by religion etc.) and the multiple modes of integration. Within such a complex European space, we identify four policy and theoretical approaches to diversity management and understanding of public space: multiculturalism, interculturalism, transnationalism and cosmopolitanism. Each approach has its own conception of public space, diversity, equality and solidarity. Most analyses of post-immigrant incorporation have been single-theory-oriented, leading to multiple, contested and controversial interpretations of integration and democratic public spaces. No systematic assessment that compares and contrasts them has thus far been undertaken. We use the four theoretical perspectives to understand how the multilevel European public space manages diversity. Our main aim is to contribute to the theory and practice of integration and diversity management in Europe. Empirically evaluating post-immigrant ethno-religious minorities’ perceptions and adoptions of these different normative approaches will allow us to clarify the nature and relations among multiple conceptions of integration in the European public space that both overlap and diverge.
Speakers
Riva Kastoryano, SciencesPO
This event was cosponsored by Migrations.
The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism | April 13, 2023
Description
The Capital Order investigates the logic of austerity today (hikes in interest rates, cuts in wages, and social benefits) by looking at its dark origins in the aftermath of World War I. Focusing on 1920s liberal-democracy Britain and fascist Italy, the book argues that the profitable application of austerity to these dissimilar nations licensed its use as a capitalist “tool of class control”.
Speakers
Clara Mattei, The New School
This event was cosponsored by History and Sociology.
Left for Dead in Far-Right Times? The Decline of Social Democracy and the Rise of the Far-Right in Western Europe | March 23, 2023
Description
Far-right political parties have recently been on the rise throughout Western Europe while social democratic parties have experienced an electoral decline. By asking what the roots of the far-right’s success are, why social democratic parties have lost ground, and if these developments are related, this talk explores one of the most topical areas in contemporary European politics. How has partisan attachment to social democratic/ far-right parties developed over time? Which policy positions have led to electoral success/debacles for social democratic/far-right parties? Where are social democratic/far-right parties ideologically located relative to their partisans/voters? How do social democratic/far-right parties explain their gains/losses? Which voters do social democratic/far-right parties target? I argue that in those countries where social democracy is on decline, social democrats have lost more partisans and remaining partisans’ attachment to social democratic parties is also weaker due to structural causes such as the erosion of working-class milieus. As strongly attached partisans vote for parties no matter how big the policy distance between them and the party is, weaker ties between partisans and social democratic parties mean less ideological flexibility. This flexibility is necessary to catch non-partisan floating voters. Parties are dependent on these volatile voters, as no party can win an election based on their core electorate alone. Floating voters then get targeted by the far-right instead. Where social democracy has lost fewer partisans, it enjoys the flexibility of ideologically adapting to floating voters and leaves no room for the far-right. How well parties have understood this, also affects their fate.
Speakers
Mona Krewel, Victoria University of Wellington
This event was cosponsored by Government.
Contesting Autocracy: Lessons from Democratic Social Movements in Portugal, Italy, and Chile | March 6, 2023
Description
Autocracy has been on the rise in global political affairs over the past decade, becoming a focal point of academic and public debate. Less attention has been focused, however, on the rise of social protest movements that contest authoritarian regimes in a large number of countries. This panel seeks to draw lessons from previous democratic social movements in Portugal, Italy, and Chile to analyze what role they play in opening up autocratic regimes and paving the way for democratic transitions.
Speakers
Tiago Carvalho, Instituto Universitario de Lisboa
Sidney Tarrow, Cornell University
Ken Roberts, Cornell University
This event was hosted in collaboration with the Einaudi Center's Democratic Threats and Resilience Global Research Priority and co-sponsored by Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Government.
The Geopolitics of the European Union's Single Market for Financial Services | February 22, 2023
Description
This talk discusses the geopolitics of the Single Market in financial services in the European Union (EU) by examining three crucial case studies: (1) the post-2008 crisis transatlantic tug of war, whereby the EU leveraged its Single Market vis-à-vis the US, seeking to set the rules for global finance; (2) the Brexit negotiations, when the EU acted as a block against the UK and successfully safeguarded the integrity of the Single Market; and finally, (3) in 2022, during the war in Ukraine, the EU ‘weaponized’ its Single Market through the adoption of financial sanctions against Russia. We argue that a combination of external and internal factors accounts for this geoeconomic turn: the evolution of the international economic and political system, in particular, the increasing challenges to the liberal order; and intra-EU developments, namely, the EU’s ability (regulatory capacity) and willingness (alignment of member states preferences) to deploy its Single Market geopolitically.
Speaker
Amy Verdun, University of Victoria
This event was cosponsored by Government.
Can Democracy Exist Without Borders? Irregular Migration in Europe and the Rise of Authoritarian Populism | February 15, 2023
Description
Since the so-called ‘Mediterranean migration crisis’ in 2015-16, the member states of the European Union with few exceptions have seen a marked shift to the right in the voting behavior of their electorates as existing and sometimes new authoritarian populist parties have identified the arrival of refugees and irregular migrants on Europe’s shores as a threat to security, social order and even ‘Christian civilization’. Although the numbers seeking sanctuary in a European continent of some 550 million+ people are not significant in world terms (only 7 million of the world’s 103 million forcibly displaced people were to be found in Europe in 2021) the political consequences of these new arrivals have been profound, dramatic and long-lasting. The successful campaign for ‘Brexit’ in the 2016 referendum on future UK membership of the European Union, and the EU-Turkey deal which led to a significant reduction in small boat crossings to Greece in return for large refugee aid payments from Brussels, have promoted a ‘Fortress Europe’ security agenda above concerns for human rights and compliance with the international refugee convention and international law. In this lecture, I explore why the presence of a small percentage of ‘uninvited guests’ has been much more of a threat to liberal democracy and the rule of law in Europe than it has been to the stability of governments and party systems in other parts of the world, why the presence of larger numbers of war displaced Ukrainians is generally not seen as problematic by neighboring European countries, and what are the long-term consequences for rights-based democracies in Europe and ‘the Global North’ in general in the face of increased population displacement pressures brought about by conflict, poverty and climate change.
Speaker
Simon Parker, University of York
This event was cosponsored by Migrations.
Centrism From the French Revolution to Today | November 29, 2022
Description
Memorably born during debates about what to do with the King, the left/right divide was not the only opposition, nor indeed the most dominant, available at the time. The Terror, for instance, opposed the Mountain to the Plane or the Marais: the Mountain was composed of radical Jacobin deputies who dominated the Committee of Public Safety – most famously Robespierre – who sat across the highest benches of the Assembly, whereas the Plain or the Marsh sat on the lower benches, closer to the tribune. What consequences for our understanding of history and contemporary politics of seeing political dynamics not through a left/right divide but a centre/extremes one?
Speaker
Hugo Drochon, University of Nottingham
This event was cosponsored by French Studies, History, and Government.
Resurrecting the Jew: Nationalism, Philosemitism, and Poland's Jewish Revival | November 15, 2022
Description
Since the early 2000s, Poland has experienced a remarkable Jewish revival, largely driven by non-Jewish Poles with a passionate new interest in all things Jewish. Klezmer music, Jewish-style restaurants, kosher vodka, and festivals of Jewish culture have become popular, while new museums, memorials, Jewish studies programs, and Holocaust research centers reflect soul-searching about Polish-Jewish relations before, during, and after the Holocaust. In Resurrecting the Jew, Geneviève Zubrzycki examines this revival and asks what it means to try to bring Jewish culture back to life in a country where 3 million Jews were murdered and where only about 10,000 Jews now live. Drawing on a decade of participant-observation in Jewish and Jewish-related organizations in Poland, a Birthright trip to Israel with young Polish Jews, and more than a hundred interviews with Jewish and non-Jewish Poles engaged in the Jewish revival, Resurrecting the Jew presents an in-depth look at Jewish life in Poland today. The book shows how the revival has been spurred by progressive Poles who want to break the association between Polishness and Catholicism, promote the idea of a multicultural Poland, and resist the Far Right government. The book also raises urgent questions, relevant far beyond Poland, about the limits of performative solidarity and empathetic forms of cultural appropriation.
Speaker
Geneviève Zubrzycki, University of Michigan
This event was cosponsored by Sociology and the Jewish Studies Program.
How Populism Deals with Complexity | September 6, 2022
Description
There is a strong tendency in social and political sciences to simplify the academic use of the concept of populism. This is what populists do when they dichotomise reality into friends and enemies. The goal of this talk is to highlight and discuss why scholars have to develop an adaptive and multifaceted perspective, and how changing realities across Europe and the United States, including the experience of Covid-19 pandemic, might contribute to strengthen this perspective.
Speaker
Oscar Mazzoleni, University of Lausanne
Dmitry Bykov in Conversation | March 24, 2022
Description
Dmitry Bykov is one of Russia’s leading public intellectuals, and a Visiting Scholar hosted by Cornell’s Institute for European Studies, under the auspices of the Open Society University Network. Meet with Dmitry for an hour of public conversation with Mabel Berezin, Director of the Institute for European Studies. Prof Berezin will ask him about the role of dissent and intellectual life in Russia, what drove him to becoming a poet and satirist, and his views on the current situation in Ukraine and Russia.
Speaker
Dmitry Bykov, Visiting Critic
The Return of History: The War in Ukraine and the Future of Great Power Competition | March 15, 2022
Description
Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine was largely informed by his notion of a shared Russian-Ukrainian history, which allegedly does not give Ukraine the right to a sovereign state. The current conflict in Ukraine is, in this sense, also a dispute about history. This panel brings together two leading historians of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War to discuss the war’s roots and significance from a historical perspective. The speakers will address key questions such as: What has Ukraine’s relationship with Russia been over the long term and how might the war change it? Does the war in Ukraine mark a break with the post-Cold War order, a return to the Cold War, or the beginning of something completely new? How should we think about China’s role in the conflict? Is the war a moment of opportunity or crisis for the West?
Speaker
Serhii Plokhy, Harvard University
Odd Arne Westad, Yale University
Cristina Florea, Cornell University
From Populism to Fascism? | March 8, 2022
Description
Fascism denied the very nature of democracy, the legitimacy of democratic procedures and their electoral outcomes. Its proponents claimed that votes were only legitimate when they confirmed by referendum the autocratic will of their leader. Populists, in contrast, have used elections to stress their own democratic nature even when they advanced other authoritarian trends. These differences matter today as wannabe fascist populist like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro and others, deny the electoral legitimacy of their opponents. The more we know about the past fascist attempts to deny the workings of democracy, the more worried we should be about present post-fascist and populist forms.
Speaker
Federico Finchelstein, The New School
Impossible Pluralism? Religious Minorities, Migrants and Unsettled European Democracy | February 15, 2022
Description
Is pluralism possible in Europe? Are far-right parties like the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and the Front National (FN) fringe movements, or do they say something unsettling about the general state of democracy in Europe, today? The Post-World War II era in Europe was characterized by both devastation and hope for democracy, including a renewed political dedication to protecting plurality. Yet it was also characterized by the large-scale migration of guestworker and postcolonial migrants. Since these migrations, European nation-states and societies have grappled with the position of those who they first cast as foreigners, later as ethnic others, and today as Muslims in the European context. These boundaries between "us" and the other within came perhaps most pointedly into focus with the refugee crisis in 2015 that magnified long-standing conversations regarding who belongs to (and who is seen to threaten) the European imaginary, and the casting of both Muslims and refugees as uncivil in the political push for Brexit.
Speaker
Elisabeth Becker, University of Heidelberg
Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right | February 3, 2022
Description
Hate crimes. Misinformation and conspiracy theories. Foiled white-supremacist plots. The signs of growing far-right extremism are all around us, and communities around the globe are struggling to understand how so many people are being radicalized and why they are increasingly attracted to violent movements. Cynthia Miller-Idriss shows how tomorrow’s far-right nationalists are being recruited in surprising places, from college campuses and mixed martial arts gyms to clothing stores, online gaming chat rooms, and YouTube cooking channels. She demonstrates how young people on the margins of our communities are targeted in these settings, and how the path to radicalization is a nuanced process of moving in and out of far-right scenes throughout adolescence and adulthood. Most importantly, she offers ideas about the role that all of us – from academics to parents to TV presenters – can work together to halt the march of extremism in the US, Europe, and around the world.
Speaker
Cynthia Miller-Idriss, American University