Transregional Center for Democratic Studies

Democracy Seminar

The Democracy Seminar is a project convened by publisher and founding editor Jeffrey Goldfarb and senior editors Elzbieta Matynia and Jeffrey C. Isaac, this world-wide discussion among pro-democracy intellectuals and activists addresses the political, social and cultural obstacles to democratic governance; investigates the rise and appeal of illiberal philosophies and practices; and explores ways for rolling back autocratic politics. Read about the first DS international meeting here.

Democracy Seminar written contributions are published on their website.

Subscribe to the Democracy Seminar bi-weekly newsletter to receive a digest of our latest published pieces and news about upcoming events, projects, and webinars.

New Forum: The Last Time I Saw Them-on the uses and disadvantages of historical comparisons for life.

Seminar Chairs

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February 28, 2022

March 8 | ONLINE | Democracy in America? A discussion with E. J. Dionne Jr., Jeffrey C. Isaac, William Kristol, and Claire Potter, moderated by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

This webinar will explore the arguments for democrats (small “d”), left, right and center, to defend liberal democracy in America against its domestic opponents. The starting point of the discussion […]

September 15, 2021

The Democracy Seminar Launches Its New Website

The Democracy Seminar (DS) has a NEW website – where you will find all their published pieces, videos from public panels, information about upcoming and past events, and more. Visit the new website for […]

March 23, 2021

ONLINE | Book Talk: Political Junkies – with Author Claire Potter

Wednesday, May 5, 2021, 11:00AM to 12:30PM (EDT) Author Claire Potter will talk about her new book, Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy, with guests: Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer, David Greenberg, and Nicole […]

March 17, 2021

ONLINE | Feminism and Democracy: Gender Studies in Romania

Wednesday, April 7, 2021, 11:30AM to 1:00PM (EDT) This event brings together two scholars with a deep interest in how civil society, feminist scholarship, and democratic practices have developed in both inter-related and disparate ways in post-communist […]

December 3, 2020

ONLINE | Kurds and Democracy: in Conversation with Saleh Moslem

Thurs., December 10th, 11:00AM to 1:00PM (EST)REGISTER HERE If jihadism and dictatorships are the most treacherous obstacles to democratization of the Middle East, their resistance against both make the Kurdish […]

November 2, 2020

ONLINE | The U.S. Election and the Future of Democracy: Political Science Perspectives

Thursday, November 5th –  12:30PM (EST)  WATCH THE VIDEO RECORDING OF THIS PANEL HERE. The panelists will engage in a free-flowing conversation about the meaning of the November 3rd election, as this can […]

October 29, 2020

ONLINE | Book Talk: I Am the People: Reflections on Popular Sovereignty Today

WATCH THE VIDEO RECORDING OF THE PANEL HERE. Friday, November 20, 2020, 12:00PM to 2:00PM (EST) The aim of this webinar is to discuss the global rise in populism in order to understand how the populist form of […]

October 2, 2020

ONLINE | Book Talk: Me, the People: How Populism Transforms Democracy

Friday, October 16, 2020, 11:00AM to 1:00PM (EDT) WATCH THE VIDEO RECORDING OF THE PANEL HERE! The aim of this webinar is to discuss the relationship between populism and democracy, starting from Nadia Urbinati’s new book, Me, the […]

August 3, 2020

We’re All in the Same Boat: A Democracy Seminar Update

by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb, Michael E. Gellert Professor of Sociology, New School for Social Research The Democracy Seminar, our worldwide committee of democratic correspondence, has moved to Zoom. Before the […]

July 20, 2020

Securing the November U.S. Election: The Urgent Task for All Democrats

by Jeffrey C. Isaac, Indiana University, Bloomington, and senior editor, The Democracy Seminar “To support the Ins when things are going well; to support the Outs when they seem to […]

July 20, 2020

Chinese Young Nationalists amid The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Rap against A “Diary”

by Chang Liu, MA Student, The New School for Social Research Sixty-five-year-old Fang Fang’s diary on living in and through the pandemic in China has recently triggered an antagonistic debate […]

July 20, 2020

State of Emergency for All? Power Relations and Challenges to Democracy in Georgia during the Pandemic

by Malkhaz Toria, Graduate program is Sociology, New School for Social Research (NSSR), and Coordinator of the Memory Studies Group at the New School Georgia government’s measures to cope with […]

July 20, 2020

COVID-19 and the Curtailment of Municipal Power in Hungary

by Kristóf Szombati, Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle  On March 30th, Hungary’s parliament passed a law giving the Orbán government the right to rule by decree […]

July 20, 2020

Human Rights in the Times of Emergency

by Kálmán Petőcz, independent political and human rights analyst. In the last decade, the Slovakian human rights discourse has almost entirely been dominated by themes of so-called culture or value […]

July 20, 2020

Hong Kong: Pandemic, Protests, and Protecting “National” Security

by Mark W. Frazier, Professor, New School for Social Research The annual June 4 candlelight vigil in Hong Kong to commemorate those who died in the 1989 suppression of peaceful […]

July 13, 2020

Democracy “As If“

by Dagmar Kusá, Assistant professor, Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts, Slovakia More than a century ago, Hans Vaihinger formulated his philosophy “as if” to describe our willing choice to […]

July 13, 2020

From Mafia State to ”Parish” Republic

by Michal Vašečka, Programme Director, Bratislava Policy Institute, Slovakia Abstract: This paper describes the peculiarity of Slovak democratic transition during the last 30 years. The author explains why and how […]

July 13, 2020

After Orwell: Some Thoughts on the Post-Pandemic World

by András Bozóki, Professor of Political Science, Central European University, Budapest and Vienna COVID-19 is the first global ‘plague’ which will leave long-term marks and memories of quarantine, masks, gloves, […]

July 8, 2020

Urban Politics and Pandemic in Turkey

by Utku Balaban, Visiting Associate Professor, Amherst College Therapeutic Effects of the Pandemic Nowadays, whenever you turn on your TV to watch Turkish news, you hear and see a lot […]