“Back from the Brink: Countering Illiberalism in Liberal Democracies,” CHESS Conference, Yale University
MACMILLAN - CENTER FOR HISTORICAL ENQUIRY & THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
The literature on the current crisis of liberal democracy focuses on the rise of illiberalism and populism as well as on the erosion of democratic rights and institutions; less systematic attention has been paid to how pro-democratic actors can prevent, contain, or resist illiberalism. The scholarship on responses to illiberalism is scattered across different subfields, including analyses of legal and judicial restrictions on extremism, studies of party organization and competition, works on civil society organizations and social movements, and analyses of voting behavior. This conference brings together scholars from different subfields of comparative politics and political sociology to discuss the conditions of viability and effectiveness of strategies to prevent the rise, contain the influence, and resist the power of political illiberalism in democracies.
This conference event is free and open to the Yale community. Download a flyer and schedule at this link.
SCHEDULE FOR FRIDAY, APRIL 14
2:45-3:00 pm: Welcome/Introductory Comments –Giovanni Capoccia, Isabela Mares
3:00-4:30 pm Session #1: Actors and Strategies; Constitutional Hardball
Chair: David Samuels (University of Minnesota)
- Paper #1: Countering Illiberalism in Liberal Democracies: Actors, Strategies, Temporalities
Author: Giovanni Capoccia (University of Oxford)
Discussant: Ian Shapiro (Yale University) - Paper #2: Democratic hardball: when breaking democratic norms might preserve democratic values
Author: David Bateman (Cornell University)
Discussant: Milan Svolik (Yale University)
4:30-4:45 pm Coffee Break
4:45-6:15 pm Session #2: Formal and Informal Responses
Chair: Ian Shapiro (Yale University)
- Paper #1: Continuity and change in restricting right-wing extremism: The United States and Greece
Author: Antonis A. Ellinas (University of Cyprus) - Paper #2: Parliaments as sites of democratic erosion: evidence from the German Bundestag
Authors: Isabela Mares and Qixuan Yang (Yale University)
Discussant: David Samuels (University of Minnesota)
SCHEDULE FOR SATURDAY, APRIL 15
9:00-9.30 am—Breakfast
9:30-11:00 am Session #3: Coordination and Social Norms
Chair: Julia Adams (Yale University)
- Paper #1: Coordinating against authoritarian power bids
Author: Ivan Ermakoff (University of Wisconsin Madison)
Discussant: Julia Adams (Yale University) - Paper #2: Civil Society as a Carrier for Democracy
Author: Hahrie Han (Johns Hopkins University)
Discussant: Dan Mattingly (Yale University)
11:00-11:30 am Coffee Break
11:30-1:00 pm Session #4: Political Parties
Chair: Maria José Hierro (Yale University)
- Paper #1: Ethnic Parties and Democratic Backsliding: The Case of the United States
Authors: Rob Lieberman (Johns Hopkins University), Daniel Schlozman (Johns Hopkins University)
Discussant: Kate Baldwin (Yale University) - Paper #2: The Opposition to the United Right Governments in Poland: Finding New Political Identities After Realignment
Authors: Melis Laebens (University of Oxford), Marcin ¦larzyński (Polish Academy of Sciences)
Discussant: Jan Kubik (Rutgers University)
1:00-2:00 pm Lunch
2:00-3:30 pm Session #5: Mobilization against Illiberalism: Civil society and Elections
Chair: Jan Kubik (Rutgers University)
- Paper #1: All democrats are not alike: Social norms, preference falsification, and democratic resilience
Author: Vicente Valentim (University of Oxford)
Discussant: Milan Svolik (Yale University) - Paper #2: Divisive and Unifying Campaign Messages: Do They Work? Why and on Whom?
Authors: Susan Stokes, Erdem Aytaç, Lautaro Cella & Ipek Çinar (University of Chicago)
Discussant: Maria José Hierro (Yale University)
3:30-4:00 pm Coffee Break
4:00-5:00 pm Roundtable: General discussion and next steps
Sponsored by the Yale MACMILLAN CENTER
Center for Historical Enquiry & the Social Sciences (CHESS)
With support from the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund