Conference: “America’s Contested Democratic Creed”

ISPS-SUPPORTED CONFERENCE EVENT
Understanding the nature, causes, and consequences of challenges to democracy in the United States is one of the most important tasks facing political science today. Over the past decade, more questions have been raised about the stability of our institutions and the robustness of Americans’ commitment to democratic norms than in any time in recent memory. A guiding theme of this conference is a conversation between Americanists and comparativists who work on democratic erosion.
This conference is open to Yale faculty, postdocs, postgrads, and graduate students, and registration is required at this link.
SCHEDULE FOR FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28:
time | activity |
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8:30 AM | Light breakfast available |
9:15 AM | Welcome & Opening Remarks |
9:30 AM | Resilient Democracies
|
10:30 AM | Coffee break |
11:00 AM | The Power of Vague Conspiracy Theories: Why Expansive Voter Fraud Theories Spread, Are Difficult to Refute, and Create Cycles of Distrust
|
12:00 PM | Lunch |
1:00 PM | Exit, Voice, & Loyalty in Defense of Democratic Principles
|
2:00 PM | Coffee break |
2:30 PM | Replacement or Realignment? Understanding the Racial-Partisan Dynamics of Democratic Backsliding in America
|
3:30 PM | Coffee break |
4:00 PM | Expression at the Edge: Free Speech Boundaries Amidst the Gaza Crisis
|
5:00 PM | Adjourn for the day |
SCHEDULE FOR SATURDAY, MARCH 1:
time | activity |
---|---|
8:00 AM | Light breakfast available |
8:30 AM | The U.S. Is Not So Exceptional: Inequality, Right-Wing Ethnonationalism, and the Erosion of Democracy
|
9:30 AM | Coffee break |
10:00 AM | Charisma and Democracy
|
11:00 AM | Coffee break |
11:30 AM | The Power of Spectacle: Elite Narratives, Cost of Dissent, and Democratic Backsliding
|
12:30 PM | Closing remarks and open discussion over lunch |
Generously funded by the Institution for Social and Policy Studies Conference Funding Initiative, and by The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale with support from the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Fund