Proportional voting usually yields parliaments where no party holds a majority of seats. Most European countries have therefore been governed by coalition governments or by minority governments, a practice particularly popular in parts of Scandinavia. After recent elections, however, government formation has proved increasingly difficult. More fragmented and more polarized [...]
"Threats to Democracy was a topic high on the agenda of political scientists at their most important annual conference: the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting (APSA), recently held from August 29 – September 1, 2019 in Washington, DC, and where political scientists discussed trends and findings within their field. This year the rise of authoritarianism, autocratic nationalism and disregard for the rule of law, and remedies were important topics. Contributions revealed some startling findings... Read on by clicking on the title."
What is the role of „the People“ in democratic decision making? According to populist criticism leveled against liberal representative democracy, the popular will is frequently disregarded in contemporary democratic procedures of decision making. CUNY scholar Michael Kaplan (Baruch College), in a recent article in Constellations, counters that the procedural aspects of democracy are in fact constitutive of “the People”, at least insofar as the procedures of democracy keep promising the achievement of a rule of the popular will at the same time that they preclude its realization.
At the annual conference of the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA), researchers were debating populism in numerous panels and roundtable events.
On the Thought Project, Professor Manu Bhagavan - a human rights, modern South Asian history and post-colonial studies scholar at The Graduate Center, CUNY and Hunter College - summarizes one of his essays on the international rise of authoritarian populism, a development driven by a set of overarching factors, Bhagavan says.
In the wake of the financial crisis observers worried that European democracies were coming under threat from populist parties and right-wing movements. Others hold that populist parties merely close a representation gap, thereby contributing to the overall health of democratic polities in Europe. However, CUNY Graduate Center scholar Till Weber [...]
“Women, racial and ethnic minorities, and other groups do not advance to faculty positions in numbers proportionate to their presence in the population,” say Virginia Valian, a distinguished professor at The Graduate Center, CUNY, and director of Hunter College’s Gender Equity Project, and Abigail Stewart, professor at the University of Michigan, in their recent book.
Are all men created equal? What is the value of egalitarianism today? Why do modern democracies have trouble dealing with race and immigration? – These were questions addressed in a recent conference organized by Helena Rosenblatt, Professor of history at The Graduate Center, CUNY and James Miller, Professor of liberal studies and politics and faculty director of the Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism program at the New School.
Should non-citizen U.S. residents be allowed to vote? Peter Markowitz, director of the Immigrant Justice Center at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University here in New York, argues in the Stanford Law Review that each U.S. state has full authority under the US Constitution to [...]
Why is feminism important for democracy? In its latest episode, The Graduate Center, CUNY podcast “The Thought Project” discusses this and other questions with sociologist Lynn Chancer, professor at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, CUNY. In her new book, After the Rise and Stall of American Feminism - Taking [...]