By weaving together the strands of democratic theory, constitutional studies, comparative political science, and social theory, the conference – organized by the Institute of Political and International Studies – seeks to explore the possible future of democratic politics following the current era of global democratic decline, or what has been described as the “fourth wave of autocratization".

There is ample academic work documenting these contemporary developments and even normative theory about democratic self-defense but it is a rather neglected question what a new age of democracy would look like after the current tide of de-democratization fades away. One thing we know for sure: democracy as a regime type has developed in the last two and a half century through a series of challenges and crisis situations and each period of crisis left a lasting impact on how democracy functioned after on. The second wave of democratization, for example, was a reflection of the experiences of totalitarianism, the third wave reflected the experiences of the encounters with classical autocracies and communist regimes. How are the current global developments going to affect the future of democracy? We need to be prepared, theoretically and methodologically, for this period and we will need to go beyond the negative experiences of democratic backsliding and democratic self-defense. To mention just a few problems: how differently will the current developments impact different regiones and countries? how will the classical 20th century party governments be affected? what will constitutional law learn to prepare democracy for a different future? what kinds of 21st century social, economic, environmental, technological challenges are going to shape the new era of democracy?

The program will be available here soon.

• First keynote speaker: Paul Blokker (professor in Political Sociology, Department of Sociology and Business Law, University of Bologna)

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