Right-Wing Populism, Autocracy, and Trump: Zeppelin University hosts a Public Lecture Series

Friedrichshafen. Zeppelin University (ZU) invites all interested parties to a Public Lecture Series on “Right-Wing Populism, Autocratic Developments, and Trump: Is Democracy, as we know it—or thought we knew it—an endangered Species?” Spanning ten sessions from late September through late November, the Series will examine, among other topics, the relationship between the constitutional court and politics as well as the future rules of international cooperation—and it will explore why many fundamental reform initiatives fail and under what conditions they might still succeed.

Political developments in recent years have reignited the debate on the stability of liberal democracies. Donald Trump’s second election as U.S. president, the AfD’s current poll numbers, and upcoming elections in the U.S. and Germany raise questions about changes to democratic institutions, the political public sphere, and international cooperation.

This Lecture Series examines these topics from various academic perspectives. How is the character of democracy changing as a result of current political developments? How is our conception of the course of history changing if the global triumph of liberal democracy—as so succinctly expressed by the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama in the early 1990s—is anything but an inevitable trend? And which institutional measures are best suited to making liberal democracy resilient? These and many other questions are the focus of the Lecture Series initiated by ZU Professor Joachim Behnke of the Chair of Political Science.

Behnke himself will kick off the Series on Monday, September 21, with a lecture on “Politics and Character.” The Series will conclude on Monday, November 30, with a panel discussion featuring representatives from politics, business, and culture—including Winfried Kretschmann, former Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg.

Here is an overview of the remaining dates:

• Monday, September 28: “At the Crossroads of the Firewall: Quo vadis Saxony-Anhalt, quo vadis Republic?” with Professor Dr. Christian Stecker, Professor of Political Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt

• Monday, October 5: “The End of Multilateralism? Trump, Autocracy, and the (New) International Order” with Professor Dr. Maria J. Debre, Chair of International Relations at ZU

• Monday, October 12: “Gender, Power, Populism” with Clara Jenny Böning, Research Associate at the Chair of International Relations at ZU

• Monday, October 19: “Transform or Lose!? On (Un)necessary and (Im)possible Reforms for a New Era” with Professor Dr. Christian Adam, Chair of Comparative Political Science—with a focus on European Institutions—at ZU

• Monday, October 26: “(Right-wing) Alternative Media: Symptom and Driver of an Increasingly Dysfunctional Public Sphere?” with Professor Dr. Florian Muhle, holder of the Endowed Chair in Communication Studies with a focus on Digital Communication at ZU

• Monday, November 9: “Right-Wing Populism and Religion: On the Role of Christianity in the Public Sphere” with Professor Dr. Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, former Regional Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria and Chair of the EKD Council; currently Chair of the World Council of Churches

• Monday, November 16: “Analysis of the Midterm Elections in the U.S.” with Professor Dr. Martin Elff, holder of the Chair of Political Sociology at ZU

• Monday, November 23: “Constitutional Courts—Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem?” with Dr. Klaus von der Weiden, President of the Thuringian Constitutional Court

All events begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Black Box on the ZU’s ZF Campus at Fallenbrunnen 3. The only exceptions are the event with Professor Dr. Heinrich Bedford-Strohm and the concluding panel discussion, which will both take place at the Graf-von-Soden Forum.

For more information and to register, visit zu.de/veranstaltungen