Democracy in Danger: An Evening With Daniel Ziblatt

Democracy is under pressure – in the United States, across Europe, worldwide. Norms are eroding, institutions are wavering, and processes once taken for granted are now in question. In their place, cynicism and corruption are ascendant. The United States is a particularly striking example: under Donald Trump, democratic erosion has intensified, evident in the executive branch overstepping its powers and in increasingly militarised, and in some cases extrajudicial, violence by state authorities. American democracy appears to be in a moment of acute stress and threat – perhaps a harbinger for processes soon to emerge or already underway across democratic states, and an empowerment for autocratic leadership worldwide. 

In this discussion, Daniel Ziblatt, among the premier scholars and chroniclers of the history of democracy, will engage in a multifaceted conversation about the many challenges democractic systems are currently facing. He will diagnose the most relevant forms of democratic backsliding and locate the most acute dangers to liberalism and pluralism.

At the same time, the picture is not uniformly negative: in key moments some democratic institutions and norms have proved resilient. The recent federal election in Hungary and ousting of Viktor Orbán is a case and point: processes of authoritarian consolidation are not as inevitable as they may seem. What can we learn from the areas in which democracy has proven stronger or more durable, and how, if at all, can we replicate those patterns? Will a new form of democratic politics emerge as a result? 

With:

• Daniel Ziblatt, Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and Director of Harvard University's Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies.

Moderation: Joshua Yaffa, Writer-in-Residence at Bard College Berlin and contributing writer at The New Yorker.

The discussion will be followed by a Q&A.

Daniel Ziblatt is the Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and Director of Harvard University's Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies. He also leads a research group on democracy and democratic erosion at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center in Germany. He is the co-author of the bestelling "How Democracies Die" - "the most important book of the Trump era," according to The Economist - and "Tyranny of the Minority." His writing appears regularly in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Die Zeit, and other publications.

Joshua Yaffa is Writer-in-Residence at Bard College Berlin. He is a contributing writer at The New Yorker and the author of “Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia”, which won the Orwell Prize in 2021.

This event is part of a Bard College Berlin’s and the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s event series, “Writing Democracy: Stories, Ideas, and Arguments On and Off the Page.” The series brings prominent journalists and writers into conversation with a broad audience in Berlin and across Germany to discuss issues of civic and political importance in both Germany and the United States. Through the lens of writing, the series offers a wider exploration of democracy and democratic institutions in a transatlantic context, including politics and society in the U.S. and Europe, the lessons of history, the role of democratic values, and misconceptions on both sides of the Atlantic, all with the aim of strengthening transatlantic ties in a challenging time.

Contact:
Deitra Myers
Division European Union and North America
Heinrich Böll Foundation Berlin
E myers@boell.de

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