The future of liberal democracy is in peril, believes Yascha Mounk. With populist movements gaining prominence across the world, faith in democratic institutions has fallen to an all-time low, while openness to illiberal forms of government is on the rise. In this climate of disillusionment, liberal democracy’s guiding principle of majority rule with minority rights is increasingly threatened, with dire implications for civil liberties. Why do growing numbers of citizens in America, and across the western world, no longer believe that democratic government can address their concerns or aspirations? Can liberal democracy be saved?
Copies of Yascha Mounk’s new book The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom is in Danger & How to Save It will be available for sale and signing after the program from The Book Cellar.
Context
Background reading and multimedia:
- If America's Democracy Fails, Can Other Ones Survive?
David Frum, The Atlantic, March 4, 2018 - How Liberals Can Reclaim Nationalism
Yascha Mounk, The New York Times, March 3, 2018 - The State of Global Democracy with the Council on Global Affairs and Freedom House
Michael Abramowitz, Jeremy Rouser and Susan Glasser, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, February 7, 2018 - Democracy is Not Dying
Thomas Carothers and Richard Youngs, Foreign Affairs, April 11, 2017 - Skeptics and Strongmen: Democracy's Detractors
Francis Fukuyama, Edward Luce, Constanze Stelzenmuller, and Susan Glasser, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, April 11, 2017
