Protesters march across Budapest’s famous Szechenyi Chain Bridge with a sign saying ‘We Have Had Enough’ during a demonstration against legislative measures introduced by Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban on Jan. 19, 2019. Thousands of Hungarians engaged in protests against Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who rebranded his ruling party Fidesz, once a liberal youth party, as a right-wing Christian nationalist organization. After the party’s victory in 2010, Orban moved to remake Hungary as what he termed an ‘illiberal state.’ (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
The University of Rhode Island’s (URI) Fall 2024 Honors Colloquium, which launches Tuesday night, Sept. 17, starts with a premise: Democracy is endangered around the world.
The greatest threat isn’t from a military coup or a revolution, suggests one of the organizers of the lecture series that returns to the Kingston campus for its 61st year.
It’s from within.
“What we’ve seen really over the last 20 years is more working on the inside, changing the institutional rules, keeping the veneer of democracy,” said Professor Marc Hutchison, chair of the URI Department of Political Science, whose work focuses on political tolerance, trust, and participation.
“Democracy in Peril,” as this year’s series of seven lectures is titled, reflects the creep of authoritarian rule observed around the world in places that have embraced xenophobic nationalism and attempted to promote individual freedom at the expense of social equality.
“When we we thinking about the title, we batted around a lot of different ideas. ‘Democracy in crisis.’ But ‘peril’ seemed to capture a little more of the global trends we have been seeing,” said Hutchison. “We’ve seen these movements arise not just in the United States but also across Europe. We’ve seen a democratic backslide in countries that were democracies that are now more authoritarian governments. We’re talking about places like Hungary and Turkey, and Poland to a certain extent.”
Speakers will draw attention to the challenges facing democracy and highlight the importance of democratic values and institutions.
The launch of the series is timely this week with Democracy Day falling on Sunday, Sept. 15, which is also the International Day of Democracy. Democracy Day is a nationwide collaborative involving news organizations covering how democracy works and the threats it faces. The first speaker just so happens to be a journalist.
Zack Beauchamp writes of how political factions altered democratic systems, preserving elections while undermining their fairness in his new book, ‘The Reactionary Spirit.’ He is the first speaker for the University of Rhode Island Fall 2024 Honors Colloquium on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (Author photo of Zack Beauchamp by Trevaughn Smith Photography)
Vox Senior Correspondent Zack Beauchamp will deliver the first lecture on the rise of populism in the U.S. and abroad. Beauchamp’s book “The Reactionary Spirit,” released in July, traces the reactionary antidemocratic views and actions that undermine the power of the people in the U.S. and elsewhere but also offers his ideas for what people can do to protect democracy.
The second speaker on Sept. 24, is Harvard University political scientist Daniel Ziblatt, co-author of the bestselling 2018 book “How Democracies Die,” which explored the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the courts and the press, allowing for the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms.
Count misinformation, political indifference, hyperpartisanship and efforts to undermine the elections process among the threats that imperil democracies. Add to that the loss of trust in government.
Approximately two out of 10 Americans say they trust the federal government in Washington to do what is right all or most of the time, according to the Pew Research Center.
“We never had political trust in government in the United States as low as it is right now, at least since we’ve been tracking it,” Hutchison said.
This fall, with a presidential election between candidates who each say the other is a threat to democracy, the URI Honors Colloquium offers an opportunity for broad dialogue and understanding. And that just might be the antidote needed to reaffirm democratic values and rebuild trust in each other and in the process.
Learn more about the 2024 Honors Colloquium here.
Speaker schedule
All lectures take place on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Edwards Hall on the Kingston campus and will be livestreamed.
Sept. 17: “Populism and the crisis of democracy at home and abroad,” Zack Beauchamp, a senior correspondent at Vox who covers global politics and ideology and author of the book “The Reactionary Spirit,” published in July 2024.
Sept. 24: “How democracies die,” Daniel Ziblatt, a Harvard University political science professor who specializes in democracy and historical political economy. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling book “How Democracies Die.”
Oct. 1: “Race and democratic backsliding in the U.S.,” Andrew Ifedapo Thompson, a University of Pennsylvania political science professor whose work focuses on how attitudes on racial demographic change can shift how Americans think about democracy and can give rise to stronger anti-democratic views.
Oct. 8: “Global cases of democratic decline,” José Cheibub, a political science professor at the University of Pittsburgh who studies democratic institutions. His work offers a global, comparative perspective on the emergence and decline of democracies, informing the debate on contemporary democratic challenges.
Oct. 22: “Role of militaries in democratic decline,” Risa Brooks, a Marquette University political science professor who studies the relationship between military institutions and democratic governance, particularly how militaries can influence or undermine democratic norms.
Oct. 29: “Disinformation and the erosion of public faith in government,” Naomi Oreskes, the Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. She is a world-renowned earth scientist, historian, and author whose works examines the role of science in society and how the intentional disinformation campaigns have stymied climate action and eroded the American public’s faith in government.
Nov. 12: “Repression and the decline of global human rights,” Christian Davenport, a University of Michigan political scientist and a founding scholar in the quantitative study of state repression and is known for his work on the connection between human rights and democracy.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX