Past, present, and future challenges to liberal democracy are the focus of this fall’s lecture series at the Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service.
The series, “The Future of Liberal Democracy,” gets underway Thursday with a presentation from historian Gary Gerstle, Mellon Professor of American History and Director of Research in American History at the University of Cambridge Emeritus, and currently a visiting fellow at Harvard. Gerstle’s presentation on neoliberalism and the changing political order will begin at noon inside the Foley Speaker’s Room, 308 Bryan Hall.
Emerging threats to the pillars upholding liberal democracies across the world prompted the Foley Institute to select the topic for this fall’s series, according to its director, Cornell Clayton.
“We wanted to host a lecture series that would help people understand the current political moment,” Clayton said. “Why are so many people disenchanted with “establishment” political leaders today? What are the alternatives that populists and authoritarians offer? And can liberal democracy survive this moment, or will it be fundamentally transformed in the future?”
We wanted to host a lecture series that would help people understand the current political moment.
Cornell Clayton, director of the Foley Institute
Washington State University
The term liberal democracy refers to democracies that also guarantee individual and civil rights, as well as rule of law and separation of political powers.
All of this fall’s Foley lectures will take place at noon inside 308 Bryan Hall at WSU Pullman, with refreshments provided. The complete list of speakers and their topics is featured below:
- Sept. 4 — Gary Gerstle, Harvard and Cambridge Universities:
“The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order” - Sept. 11 — Jeffrey Kopstein, University of California, Irvine:
“Deconstructing the state: The populist attack on rule of law” - Sept. 25 — Patrick Deneen, University of Notre Dame:
“Regime change: A post-liberal future” - Oct. 1 — Olyvia Christley, Washington State University:
“The rise of right-wing politics in Europe”
Co-sponsored by the Roots of Contemporary Issues Program at WSU - Oct. 16 — Steven Hahn, New York University:
“A history of illiberal America” - Oct. 23 — Matthew McManus, Spelman College:
“Right-wing challenges to liberal America” - Nov. 6 — Samuel Moyn, Yale University:
“Liberalism’s lost aspirations” - Dec. 3 — Michael McFaul, Stanford University:
“Autocrats vs. democrats: China, Russia, America, and the new global disorder”
“We have invited a world class group of political scholars and historians, with a broad range of views, to put recent political developments into broader historical and global contexts and help us asses the challenges they pose to liberal democratic government,” Clayton said. “I hope students, the campus community, and the public will come join us.”
