THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Event
Democracy’s Resilience in the Age of Populism
Oct 16, 4:30 PM - 11:59 PM
Join the Chicago Center on Democracy for a presentation by Kurt Weyland on his new book, Democracy’s Resilience to Populism’s Threat: Countering Global Alarmism. In this insightful work, Weyland challenges prevailing fears about populism by conducting a comprehensive comparative analysis of 30 populist leaders in Latin America and Europe over the past 40 years. He argues that populist leaders can only dismantle democracy under specific, restrictive conditions, offering a fresh perspective on the resilience of democratic systems.
In addition, Weyland will take time at the end to reflect on the potential risks to US democracy that may arise from the upcoming presidential election, and answer discussion questions. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the complexities of populism and its true impact on democracy!
About the author:
Kurt Weyland is the Mike Hogg Professor in Liberal Arts at UT - Austin, his research interests focus on democratization and authoritarian rule, on social policy and policy diffusion, and on populism in Latin America and Europe. He has drawn on a range of theoretical and methodological approaches, including insights from cognitive psychology, and has done extensive field research in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, and Venezuela. After receiving a Staatsexamen from Johannes-Gutenberg Universitat Mainz in 1984, a M.A. from UT in 1986, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1991, he taught for ten years at Vanderbilt University and joined UT in 2001. He has received research support from the SSRC and NEH and was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, in 1999/2000 and at the Kellogg Institute, University of Notre Dame, in 2004/05. From 2001 to 2004, he served as Associate Editor of the Latin American Research Review.
About the book:
“The recent global wave of populist governments, which culminated in Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, has convinced many observers that populism is a grave threat to democracy. In his new book, Kurt Weyland critiques recent scholarship for focusing too closely on cases where populist leaders have crushed democracy, and instead turns to the many cases where would populist-authoritarians have failed to overthrow democracy. Through a systematic comparative analysis of thirty populist chief executives in Latin America and Europe over the last four decades, Weyland reveals that populist leaders can only destroy democracy under special, restrictive conditions. Left-wing populists suffocate democracy only when benefitting from huge revenue windfalls, whereas right-wing populists must perform the heroic feat of resolving acute, severe crises. Because many populist chief executives do not face these propitious conditions, Weyland proves that despite populism’s threat, democracy remains resilient,” (Cambridge University Press).