As part of Meeting Minds 2023, Head of Division Professor Tim Power hosted the panel ‘Democratic backsliding: liberal democracy at risk’. The session was very well-attended, tempting a large crowd away from the glorious September sunshine.
The panel explored the impact of radical right-wing populism on institutions and international co-operation, and highlighted recent investigations that show increased democratic erosion on a global scale. Speakers argued that democracies are growing weaker to authoritarian assault through various techniques, including attacks on elections, journalists and the funding of civil society, as well as the independence of the judiciary.
Looking to the future, the panellists asked: how can democracies be reinvented to protect themselves? What safeguards can be written into constitutions, especially to ensure a system of checks and balances? How can scholars create a typology for patterns of democratic decay?
The panel featured colleagues from the Faculty of Law and Department of Politics and International Relations, as well as SSD alumni from Open Society Foundations and the intergovernmental organisation International IDEA.
This note was originally published at the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford. See original article.
