March 17, 2023 In Case You Missed It: Last month, the Democracy and Governance (DG) program at Georgetown […]

The Democracy and Governance Program at Georgetown University is seeking well-written, interesting submissions of 1,500 – 2,000 words for the 2017-18 edition of its publication — Democracy & Society. The submissions can be new publications, summaries, excerpts of recently completed research, book reviews, and works in progress. Graduate and undergraduate submissions are both accepted. Submissions for this issue will be due by January 19, 2018. Please email all submissions along with a brief author’s bio to democracyandsociety@gmail.com.

This issue will have a focus on Democracy, Nationalism, and Populism and we are seeking articles that address the following themes:

By Jennifer Raymond Dresden, Associate Director of the Democracy & Governance Program

We’re turning now to our final installation of the summer book club, focusing more directly on the polarization and partisanship that has increasingly come to define political life in the United States.  Rather than cruise through the usual tomes of political finger-pointing, though, we’ll take a slightly different approach to the topic. 

By Matteo Laruffa, PhD candidate LUISS University

“Crisis of democracy”, “democracies in crisis”, “demise of democracy”, or even “democratic deconsolidation” – these phrases, along with many others, have become the focal points of countless political debates from political tabloids to the highest degree of academia. This shows that the issue is once again in vogue.

As with many phenomena in political science, ones relating to “democracies in crisis” have captured the imagination of a diverse group of scholars from Classical Athens to modern day. In the ancient world, Plato was among the first authors to discuss it, while only two centuries ago, Alexis de Tocqueville furthered the topic with a focus on the risks for representative democracies. In the Thirties with the first reverse wave, and in the Seventies with a massive decline of confidence in democratic institutions, there was significant growth of attention for this phenomenon. Today, political scientists are focusing their research to the crisis of democracy.

By Jennifer Raymond Dresden, Associate Director of the Democracy & Governance Program

Richard V. Reeves.  Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That’s a Problem, and What to Do About It.  Brookings Institution Press. 2017

Our second installation of the Democracy and Governance Summer Reading Group takes on questions of class and inequality in the United States.  Over the next few weeks we’ll be reading Richard Reeves’ new book Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That’s a Problem, and What to Do About It.

By Jennifer Raymond Dresden, Associate Director of the Democracy & Governance Program

While classes are out for the summer and many of our students are excelling in internships around the world and contributing to research projects a bit closer to home, we here at the Democracy & Governance Program are still firing on all cylinders. To keep important conversations going over the summer and to keep everyone thinking about the fundamental issues of democracy, we are introducing our first-ever Democracy & Governance Summer Reading Group.

By Dr. Daniel Brumberg, Director of the Democracy and Governance Program at Georgetown University 

(continues from part 2…)

What then is to be done? What can we, students and faculty in this country’s only full Masters program in Democracy and Governance Studies, do in the face of these challenges, and the potentially massive political change happening on our own doorstep? I honestly am not sure, but I would offer, at least to get the discussion started, a few ideas.

By Dr. Daniel Brumberg, Director of the Democracy and Governance Program at Georgetown University 

(continues from part 1…)

On the question of understanding, I would suggest that the current political crisis is a consequence of a perfect storm of several factors and events, many of which you are familiar with. They include but are not limited to the following three factors: