Democracy Under Threat conference

On July 4th BRLSI will be hosting an all-day conference as part of the Democracy Under Threat series. Here you can get to watch some great speakers and exchange thoughts with fellow attendees over lunch. At the close of play, a panel which includes Wera Hobhouse, Member of Parliament for Bath will discuss the issues which have come up throughout the course of the day.

To attend the conference, you can purchase an all-day ticket for Queen Square below, or if you can’t join us in the building, you can still livestream individual sessions from the comfort of your own home. All individual sessions are listed here.

You may even want to make the most of our special offer for the series – buy five or more watch online tickets for the Democracy under Threat series and get 20% off!   Use the code DUT544 in the offer code box in your basket.

Programme:

9.15 am – Registration at BRLSI (for a 9.45 start.)

9.45 am Introductions

10:00-11:00 – Professor Andrew Blick (King’s College London)

Threats to democracy: a historical perspective

The world is afflicted by a sense of democratic despondency. Experts see diverse countries spread across the world as providing reasons for concern. Authoritarianism is strengthening, they tell us, even in countries where democracy was supposedly more established. They include the US under Donald Trump and – perhaps – the UK. This pessimism contrasts significantly with the pessimism of the late twentieth century, and what was known as the ‘Third Wave’ of international democratisation. What has happened? How bad is it? And what – if anything – can we do about it? This talk approaches these questions using an historical perspective, focusing in particular on the past of the UK.

11:00-11:30 Break

11:30-12:30 – Professor Alan Renwick (University College London)

The role of checks & balances in democracy

There are two common views on how the UK’s political system functions. One sees power as dangerously concentrated, and supports reforms designed to strengthen checks and balances. For the other, those in positions of nominal power are prevented from acting decisively by innumerable constraints, and reforms need to cut these fetters away. Partisans of these different views do not always listen sufficiently to each other. In this talk, Alan Renwick will examine the arguments on both sides and assess what conclusions we can reasonably draw about how checks and balances ought to function in the political system. He will then explore implications particularly for debates around electoral reform and ways of deepening public participation in the democratic process.

12:30-13:30 – Lunch break (light sandwich lunch included)

13:30-14:30 – Dr Thom Oliver (UWE)

Unmoored voices: how voters navigate Britain’s complex democracy

As people become less loyal to traditional political parties in Britain, more voters feel ‘unmoored’ – unsure about where they belong politically.  Drawing on insights from the Qualitative Election Study of Britain, this talk will use the words of ordinary voters to explore the narratives and prompts they use to navigate the contested and changing political world. How do they decide who deserves praise or blame?  And what mental shortcuts are used when they’re not clear who’s responsible for what?  The talk will also look at how these everyday stories shape perceived trust in politics, participation in democracy, and beliefs about whether the system is fair – and what might help people to feel more confident in politics and democracy itself.

14:30-15:00 Break

15:00-16:00 – Professors Paul D’Anieri (University of California at Riverside) & Rajan Menon (City University of New York) in conversation with Andreas Wasmuht (BRLSI Director & World Affairs convenor)

Going, going, gone: the erosion of democracy in the USA

The signing of the Declaration of Independence and the establishment of the US Constitution heralded in a new era of hope, based on core principles of power from the people, limited government, separation of powers among three branches, checks and balances, federalism, and the protection of individual rights. 250 years on and these principles are being threatened by declining trust in elections, partisan polarization, the erosion of democratic norms, checks and balances, increased executive power, and growing political violence.

Key factors eroding liberal democracy include challenges to electoral integrity, the weakening of media independence, the normalization of political violence, the politicization of the judiciary and law enforcement, and the growing power of the executive branch. The politicization of the civil service and legal targeting of political opponents and the use of rhetoric of “law and order” to limit political participation threaten to further concentrate power. Political polarization and growing economic inequality have fostered distrust in institutions, leading many voters to support the populist leaders driving these changes. These developments are reflected in various democracy indices which have downgraded democratic health in the US, with some showing the US at the threshold of autocracy.

 Join Professors Paul D’Anieri and Rajan Menon in conversation with Andreas Wasmuht as they trace the background to these dangerous developments, explore their impacts on a global scale, and finally explore potential future trajectories of Democracy in the US and Democracy in general.

16:30-17.30

To mark the close of our Democracy Under Threat conference, a panel of speakers including Wera Hobhouse MP, Alan Renwick (Professor of Democratic Politics, University College London), Thom Oliver (Senior Lecturer in Politics in the School of Social Sciences at UWE) Andreas Wasmuht (BRLSI) and Paul Jackson (BRLSI) identify the current threats to democracy both at home and abroad and ask what remedies are at hand, if any, to help ameliorate current problems within our democratic systems. Wera Hobhouse will also discuss what the day to day life of a working MP looks like.

5.30pm close.