Democracy in Crisis: The End of Politics as We Know it?

The events of the most recent past – the electoral success of parties with latent or openly anti-democratic goals and the growing political polarization – have provided grounds to be concerned about the stability of democracy in many regions of the world, but particularly in the supposedly stable democracies of the West.

As a result of these events, the belief in democracy as a patent remedy for the stabilization and modernization of nations has been significantly weakened. In many European countries, the conviction is disappearing that universal participation in political decision-making is necessary, sometimes going as far as the specific intention of limiting civil rights for certain sections of the population. This is often connected to a loss of trust in the authority of law as an instrument of conflict resolution and balancing of interests. This change in public opinion can also be observed in foreign policy. Only a decade ago, attempts were still being made to establish democratic institutions in foreign countries with external and, in some cases, military intervention, trusting in the stabilizing and modernizing power of these institutions. In many cases, however, this induced transformation process is now in danger of faltering or even failing. It indeed appears that the democratic form of government itself, even in Western countries, is losing its appeal, with openly anti-democratic parties gaining both support and power.

The CAS research focus will aim to provide explanations for these dynamics from the perspective of various disciplines, thus fostering the interdisciplinary discourse on one of the most pressing questions today. Three different topic threads are envisaged for this.

• Topic Thread 1: Perception of economic uncertainty and growing inequality
• Topic Thread 2: Exogenous and endogenous threats to democratic structures
• Topic Thread 3: The understanding of democracy

Spokespersons

• Prof. Dr. Florian Englmaier
  (Chair of Microeconomics, LMU)
• Prof. Dr. Christoph Knill
  (Chair of Empirical Theories of Politics, Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science (GSI), LMU)
• Prof. Dr. Uwe Sunde
  (Chair for Population Economics, LMU)

Research Focus Group

• Prof. Dr. Katrin Auspurg
  (Chair of Quantitative Social Research, LMU)
• Prof. Dr. Armin Engländer
  (Chair of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedural Law, Philosophy of Law and Sociology of Law, LMU)
• Prof. Dr. Karsten Fischer
  (Chair for Political Theory, Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science (GSI), LMU)
• Prof. Dr. Mario Gollwitzer
  (Chair of Social Psychology, LMU)
• Prof. Dr. Thomas Hanitzsch
  (Department of Media and Communication (IfKW), LMU)
• Prof. Dr. Monika Schnitzer
  (Chair of Comparative Economics, LMU)
• Dr. Astrid Séville
  (Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science (GSI), LMU)
• Dr. Yves Steinebach
  (Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science (GSI), LMU)

Visiting Fellows

• Prof. David Levi-Faur, Ph.D.
  (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
• Prof. Michael Kimmage, Ph.D.
  (Catholic University of America, Washington DC)

CAS^Video

Please find video recordings of this Research Focus here: CAS^Video – Democracy in Crisis and CAS^Video – Zur Aktualität von Max Weber.

 

Events

• Lecture by Prof. Dr. Thomas Fischer – "Strafjustiz im Spiegel der Medien – ein Zerrbild?"
  (Summer Semester 2019)
• Lecture by Prof. Dr. Christian Welzel – "Democratic Horizons: What Value Change Reveals about the Future of Democracy"
  (Winter Semester 2019/20)
• Lecture Series – "Zur Aktualität von Max Weber"
  (Summer Semester 2020)
• Interdisciplinary Zoom-Workshop – "Motivierte Kognition: Psychologische Struktur – Ökonomische Rationalität – Politische Problematik"
  (Summer Semester 2020)
• Lecture within the Lecture Series "Cutting Edge" by Prof. Dr. Michael Zürn – "Repräsentation in der Krise"
  (Winter Semester 2020/21)
• Lecture by Prof. Dr. Robin Celikates – "'Wir sind das Volk?' Pluralisierung versus Homogenisierung des Demos"
  (Winter Semester 2020/21)
• International Conference – "International Public Administrations: Global Public Policy between Technocracy and Democracy"
  (Winter Semester 2020/21)
• Panel Discussion with Prof. Jutta Allmendinger, Ph.D., and Prof. Dr. Monika Schnitzer – "Brennglas der Pandemie. Covid-19 als Katalysator gesellschaftlicher Ungleichheiten"
  (Summer Semester 2021)
• Panel Discussion with Prof. Stephen Holmes, Ph.D., Dr. Ivan Krastev and Prof. Michael Kimmage, Ph.D. – "The Light that Failed. A New Debate on Liberalism and Democracy"
  (Summer Semester 2021)
• Discussion with Margarete Bause, MdB, Prof. Dr. Stephan Lessenich, Tatjana Schäfer and Prof. Dr. Bernhart Schwenk – "Kunst am CAS − Joseph Beuys – Multiples Dissonanzen der Demokratie. Verlernen wir zu debattieren?"
  (Summer Semester 2021)
• Lecture by Prof. Dr. Philip Manow – "Crisis – What Crisis? Demokratie und Demokratiebeobachtung in der Krise"
  (Summer Semester 2021)
• Workshop – "Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Motivated Cognition"
  (Winter Semester 2021/22)
• Lecture by Prof. Dr. Michael Butter – "Verschwörungstheorien in Geschichte und Gegenwart"
  (Summer Semester 2022)
• Lecture by Prof. Dr. Gunnar Folke Schuppert – "Verschwörungstheorien und Digitale Demokratien"
  (Summer Semester 2022)
• Lecture by Prof. Dr. Monika Betzler – "Verschwörungstheorien und Politische Meinungsbildung in Zeiten der Pandemie"
  (Summer Semester 2022)