Events

November 20 Roger Koenker, University College London Topic TBA

Climate change and threats to democracy are arguably the two biggest issues facing today’s world, and there are many open questions about the interactions between the two.

Perhaps the biggest question is: Are democratic systems of government equipped to successfully address the growing challenges that climate change is bringing? Democratic systems generally work through extended deliberations, messy compromises, incremental improvements over time, and imperfect implementation and enforcement. Thus, the decisiveness of authoritarian governments may have an advantage; the “eco-authoritarianism” perspective argues that we need to be willing to set aside some aspects of democracy in order to address this existential issue of climate change.

Yet, can we expect authoritarian responses to climate change to be any different than their responses to many other issues? Autocratic leaders are focused on cementing their own power by stifling competition and dissent, and only focus on solving real problems for their people to the extent that it serves the purpose of entrenching their own power. Further, some of the key societal actors for addressing big issues such as climate change are usually suppressed in autocratic countries: namely, civil society organizations, a free press, and research institutions. What is the evidence for the success of democratic and authoritarian responses to climate change?

Additionally, we may discuss other aspects of the intersection between democracy and climate change, such as:

• How democratic are the global negotiations on climate change? To what extent can such negotiations—between countries with vastly different levels of power, as well as different levels of emissions—be democratic, in the absence of a global government?
• Climate change implies a relationship between those living today and those in the future. To what extent should future beings have a say in decisions related to climate change, and how could this be achieved?
• Even in democratic countries such as the United States, do we have enough democracy to solve climate change? That is, how big of a voice do those who are affected by climate change (as well as those with climate expertise) have in policymaking, and how could democratic discourse be improved?

Please join the Chicago Center on Democracy for a panel conversation about these questions, featuring:

• Elizabeth Chatterjee, Assistant Professor of Environmental History, UChicago
• Robert Gulotty, Associate Professor of Political Science, UChicago
• Daniel Fiorino, Director of the Center for Environmental Policy, American University
• Cristóbal Bellolio, Tinker Visiting Professor, UChicago

An extraordinary set of events in Bangladesh in July and August 2024 resulted in the collapse of an authoritarian regime. Angry students steered a revolt that turned their dissatisfaction with public job reservation policies into a one-point demand for the resignation of the prime minister. The speed and manner in which the events unfolded were unparalleled, even though popular uprisings have a longer genealogy in Bangladesh. The questions around history, democracy, and geopolitics that July 2024 have spectacularly revived bring older tensions to the fore that have implications for the political future of Bangladesh and the larger region.

This conversation features three scholars of Bangladeshi history, politics, and popular culture who will discuss the July Uprising and share their insights into its immediate and long-term significance. 3CT fellow Rochona Majumdar will moderate.

October 1
Francesco Squintani, University of Warwick
Topic: TBA

October 2
Francesca Molinari, Cornell University
“Inference for an Algorithmic Fairness-Accuracy Frontier” (with Yiqi Liu, Cornell University)