Democracy in Danger: A Conversation with Susan Neiman and Daniel Ziblatt
Monday, February 8, 2021
12-1:30pm Eastern Time (US) / 6-7:30pm German time
Zoom Webinar
You can watch a recording of the complete event by clicking the button above.
About the Event
What do protests against Covid-19 restrictions, claims of election fraud, and the events of January 6th, 2021 tell us about the status of our democracy? How do political scientists make sense of what is happening? What comparisons with European events are appropriate? What can and should be done to stabilize and strengthen democracy on both sides of the Atlantic?
Susan Neiman and Daniel Ziblatt will discuss the current dangers to democracy and reflect on the severity of today's situation. Exchanging European and American perspectives will provide new insights and, possibly, suggestions on how to overcome the apparent dilemma and how to strengthen our democratic instituations.
About the Speakers
Susan Neiman is Director of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Neiman studied philosophy at Harvard and the Freie Universität Berlin, and was professor of philosophy at Yale and Tel Aviv University. She is the author of Slow Fire: Jewish Notes from Berlin, The Unity of Reason: Rereading Kant, Evil in Modern Thought, Fremde sehen anders, Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-up Idealists, Why Grow Up?, Widerstand der Vernunft. Ein Manifest in postfaktischen Zeiten and Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil.
Daniel Ziblatt is Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and is director of the Transformations of Democracy group at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. He specializes in the study of Europe and the history of democracy. His three books include How Democracies Die (Crown, 2018; co-authored with Steve Levitsky), a New York Times best-seller and Der Spiegel best-seller (Germany) and translated into twenty two languages. He is also the author of Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2017), an account of Europe's historical democratization, which won the American Political Science Association's 2018 Woodrow Wilson Prize for the best book in government and international relations and American Sociological Association's 2018 Barrington Moore Prize. His first book was an analysis of 19th century state building, Structuring the State: The Formation of Italy and Germany and the Puzzle of Federalism (Princeton, 2006). In recent years he has been a fellow or visiting professor at the European University Institute (Florence, Italy), Center for Advanced Study (Stanford), Max Planck Institute (Cologne), University of Munich, and the Ecole Normale Superieure (Paris).
Washington, DC - January 6, 2021: Protesters seen all over Capitol building where pro-Trump supporters riot and breached the Capitol (Shutterstock)