This seminar introduces students to the major theories and normative models of democracy. We will focus on how democracy has been defined, justified, and institutionalized in different traditions before turning to two of the most pressing challenges facing democratic systems today: the erosion of democratic institutions from within, and the politics of migration.
We begin by asking what democracy actually is, engaging with competing definitions (procedural and substantive) and the major normative models: liberal, republican, and deliberative. We then turn to how democracies differ from, and are challenged by, authoritarian and hybrid alternatives. The next block examines democratic backsliding: the gradual, often legal process by which elected leaders weaken the institutions, rules, and norms that sustain democratic rule. We give particular attention to how populism interacts with this process.
The next block then addresses migration as a theoretical and political challenge to democratic governance: how theories of democratic membership and citizenship handle the inclusion of newcomers, and how migration has become entangled with populist backlash and the erosion of liberal-democratic norms. We then turn to how other institutions (media, civil society) become sites of control or resistance, before closing with a comparative and global perspective.
Throughout, students are expected to move between theory and empirical application: each theory covered should be usable as a lens on a real case.
- Dozent/in: Ceren Cevik