The three concepts-popular sovereignty, majority rule and electoral politics-as embodied in institutional arrangements and practices, are seen as constitutive of the modern democratic project as it has evolved over the last three hundred years or more. However, in recent decades those concepts and their institutional expressions are beginning to threaten and undermine the spirit and norms of democracy everywhere, including in economically advanced liberal societies in the West. This conference interrogated and explored this challenge “internal” to the democratic project itself.
Schedule:
Thursday, May 30, 2019
12.30-1.30 Lunch, IWM Cafeteria
1.30-3.30pm
Panel 1: Popular Sovereignty and Neo-Liberalism
Ewa Atanassow (Political Thought, Bard College, Berlin & Visiting Fellow, IWM, Vienna)
Popular Sovereignty on Trial
Benjamin Lee (Anthropology and Philosophy, New School)
Neoliberalism, Financialization and the Politics of Volatility
Chair: Dilip Gaonkar (Rhetoric & Public Culture, Northwestern University)
3.30-4.00pm Coffee
4.00-5.30pm
Keynote Address
Michael Ignatieff (Political Philosophy, Rector of CEU)
Democracy Against Democracy: The Electoral Crisis of Liberal Constitutionalism
Chair: Shalini Randeria (Anthropology and Sociology, Rector of IWM)
7:30pm Dinner, Restaurant Tulsi, Fluchtgasse 1, 1090 Wien
Friday, June 31, 2019
9.30-10.00am Coffee
10.00am-12.00 noon
Panel 2: Democracy and Degeneration
Charles Taylor (Philosophy, McGill University)
Three Modes of Democratic Degenerations
Craig Calhoun (Social Sciences, Arizona State University)
Shifting Social Foundations of Democracy
Chair: Claudio Lomnitz (Anthropology, Columbia University)
12:00-1.00pm Lunch, Restaurant Gabel&Co, Julius-Tandler-Platz 1, 1090 Wien
1:00-3.00pm
Panel 3: Democracy and Contestation
Dilip Gaonkar (Rhetoric and Pubic Culture, Northwestern University)
The Structure of Democratic Degenerations
Nilufer Gole (Sociology, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, EHESS)
Populism and Pluralism: Public Space at Stake
Chair: Ludger Hagedorn (Philosophy, Permanent Fellow, IWM)
3.00-3.30pm Coffee
3.30pm-5.30pm
Panel 4: Democracy at Crossroads in Latin America
Claudio Lomnitz (Anthropology, Columbia University)
Mexico: The National-Popular Tradition in the Era of Climate Change
Luciana Chamorro Elizondo (Anthropology, Doctoral Candidate, Columbia University)
Populist authoritarianism and minority rule in post-revolutionary Nicaragua
Chair: Ayse Caglar (Social & Cultural Anthropology, Permanent Fellow, IWM)
7:30pm Dinner, Restaurant Heurigen Schübel Auer, Kahlenberger Str. 22, 1190 Wien
Saturday, June 1, 2019
9.30-10.00am Coffee
10.00am-1.00pm
Panel 5: Theorizing and Historicizing Indian Democracy
Arudra Burra (Philosophy, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi)
Popular but not Sovereign: Nationalism, Electoral Politics, and the Government of India Act, 1935
Aishwary Kumar (History, Stanford University & Visiting Fellow, IWM)
The Idolatry to Come: Constitutional Theory and the Majority's Two Bodies
Mukulika Banerjee (Anthropology and South Asia, LSE)
The Challenges of Cultivating Democracy
Chair: Deval Desai (Law, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Albert Hirschman Center on Democracy, Graduate Institute, Geneva)
1:00pm Sandwich Lunch, IWM Cafeteria (optional)
