How British & American ideas about democracy first diverged

BRLSI’s Democracy Under Threat series invites you to pause and take stock by surveying the wealth of history and political thinking which underpins our long-held democratic systems and institutions. It explores the laying down of democratic principles from Ancient Athens to the present day, and takes in current scenarios in international geopolitics, while considering Britain as its own small island with its own set of political traditions.

An upcoming talk by Joanna Innes examines some of the ways in which British and American political paths diverged in the decades following American independence, with special reference to their development of differing ideas about democracy. The War of Independence was a civil war, fought between countries which largely shared political values, both highly critical of ‘democracy’, as it was then understood. In the following decades, as their political institutions, practices and values diverged, both joined other countries across Europe and the Americas in re-evaluating ‘democracy’. But their re-evaluations also took different paths, laying the groundwork for some differences that persist today.

Joanna Innes is Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the University of Oxford and a Senior Research Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford.  She co-edited the book ‘Re-imagining Democracy in the Age of Revolutions’, which charts how people’s thinking about democracy changed in the North Atlantic region between the American Revolution and the revolutions of 1848. Also two sequels, looking at the changing fortunes of democracy in the Mediterranean world and Latin America and the Caribbean. She is currently working on the final volume in the series, which focusses on central & northern Europe.

A discount of 20% is on offer to all those purchasing five tickets or more from the series, excluding the conference on the 4th of July.

To learn more about Democracy Under Threat and the exciting range of speakers coming up as part of the programme, don’t forget to follow our Democracy Under Threat Webpage: https://www.brlsi.org/democracyunderthreat/