What is the global state of democracy in 2018?
Join us at the panel “The Global State of Democracy: Crisis or Trendless Fluctuations” during the 25th IPSA World Congress of Political Science. International IDEA invites leading scholars to discuss the global state of democracy and to evaluate whether extant measures of democracy are helpful tools to reveal the trends.
The global trends of democratic development is a topic that has drawn a lot of attention, especially since Huntington’s (1991) classic statement on the “waves” and “reverse waves” of democratization.
The debate surrounding this topic is closely linked to the discussion of how we best define and measure democracy. At a minimum, democracy means rule by the people but beyond that, there is much disagreement about the defining attributes of democracy and how to go about to measuring democracy to get the most accurate analysis. To add to this debate, there is also disagreement about how democracy is actually doing. Some observers hold that decades of remarkable improvements in the state of democracy have recently been replaced by a significant decline in the global level of democracy and they see clear signs of a reverse wave of democratization. Others hold that the warnings are exaggerated and that we have witnessed a slowdown or a global standstill of democratic progress rather than a sharp decline. While some agree that the decline is not sharp and that indeed we are witnessing a milder form of backsliding they argue that the current developments around the world are enough to raise red flags about the continued deconstruction of democracy. To add to this, there is also a push to engage in a nuanced analysis which allows us to see beyond the widespread pessimism, especially given the global progress in a number of attributes of democracy such as competitive elections, civil liberties and control of government over the last 40 years and some are looking to expand the analysis and discussion beyond progress and decline and include an analysis with a stronger emphasis on the erosion of democracy or by using a non-linear approach to the consolidation of democracy.
Panel: The Global State of Democracy: Crisis or Trendless Fluctuation
When: 15.30 – 17.15, 22 July, 2018
Where: Room: Mezzanine /M2
IPSA 25th World Congress of Political Science “Borders and Margins”
Brisbane, Australia July 21 – 25 July 2018
Chair: Leena Rikkilää-Tamang, International IDEA
Co-chair: Mélida Jiménez, Folke Bernadotte Academy/IDEA
Panellists:
Svend-Erik Skaaning, Aarhus University
Gerardo Munck, University of Southern California
Marianne Kneuer, University of Hildesheim
Roberto Foa, University of Melbourne
Martha Lagos, Latinobarometro
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