CGS to Host Democracy Conference
Democracy, warns the nongovernmental think tank Freedom House, is in retreat. The organization says a rise in populism and authoritarianism, from the United States to China, is an indicator of a decline in global freedom that is “consistent and ominous.” At the same time, nations are increasingly retreating from the international institutions that have defined the world order since World War II.
“This is a time when we are beset with problems like climate change, mass migration, international terrorist networks, human trafficking, international narcotics,” says R. Sam Deese, a senior lecturer in social sciences. “These are problems that can only be addressed with collaboration, and yet we have this backlash, not just in the United States, but in many countries around the world, where you have leaders rallying against international institutions.”
Along with fellow CGS senior lecturer Michael Holm, Deese is organizing a conference to discuss the viability of international democratic institutions. How Democracy Survives: The Crises of the Nation State will be held from October 28 to October 30, 2020.
According to Deese and Holm, the conference was inspired by their mutual interest in world federalism, the movement advocating for democratic global institutions, and by the increasing prevalence of global challenges. The conference, cosponsored by the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and CGS, will bring together scholars and activists from a variety of fields to discuss if and how global democratic institutions may be able to take on the world’s most pressing challenges. Deese and Holm say the conference is intentionally scheduled to happen within a few weeks of the 2020 presidential election.
Yascha Mounk, a political scientist and journalist who specializes in liberal democracy and the rise of populism, will give the keynote address, which will also serve as CGS’ annual Stanley Stone Lecture.
The conference owes much to the work of the late Anthony Janetos, the former director of the Pardee Center who died in 2019. “We really feel indebted to him and we want this conference to be incredible, partly as a tribute to his support,” Deese says.
1 comment
Cooperation and communication among nation-states is not only desirable, but inevitable. Today the bones of such a system are already well in place, which is why we can fly planes to all nations, call and send email to all nations, buy strawberries in winter, and products manufactured in one nation will work in most others. The current reactionary political and social movement is the recrudescence of ancient prejudices, tribal superstitions, and a philosophy of fearing the “stranger.”
Progress will be made when more people embrace the concepts of justice, equality, empathy, and kindness: these are hardly new qualities, but have languished recently in our rush to be modern and pragmatic. Many have confused cynicism with sophistication: the first trivializes positive details, the second evaluates all factors evenly and understands where they fit into a greater framework.