A collaboration with The New School & the European Democracy Institute
 
Year: <span>2026</span>

Year: 2026

Understanding the retreat of democracy with Jeff Goldfarb’s Gray is Beautiful

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Irit Dekel reflects on how the book’s subtitle, Confronting the Retreat of Democracy from the Radical Center, poses the potent tensions that are crucial for attempting to solve the problems at hand, suggesting that through his concept of the “radical center,” Goldfarb and the people who create this space create it consciously and arguing that it is radical to confront the retreat of democracy from a center that is plural and open.

Thoughts on “The Radical Center” and the Defense of Democracy

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Jeffrey C. Isaac suggests that this “paradoxical idea” (paradoxical, for: how can “radicalism” be “centrist?”) is best defended by Goldfarb himself, but that the answer goes something like this: however polarized the situation, and however righteous the cause, there is never a single way to act or to be. And so, there is always a need for there to be a space for thinking beyond oneself and one’s commitments, and for real dialogue—listening as well as speaking—as a constitutive feature of ethically justified action.

Resisting cynicism and neo-totalitarianism

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Siobhan Kattago notes that while “radical center” may sound like a contradiction in terms, the center that he envisions is radical because its roots can withstand the abyss of raging anger promoted by strongmen and clever algorithms, insofar as it is also an ethical space that grounds how we orient ourselves to one another and to the world. In this way, the radical center is similar to Krzysztof Czyzewski’s understanding of Sejny, as a small center of the world.

A War of Interregnum

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Hussein Banai (Indiana University) argues that what is underway in Washington is a revolution from within. Previous American wars, however disastrous, were waged by a state with recognizable continuity; this one is being waged by an extractive regime that is turning the state into a pariah.

A Reliable Ally? Catholicism and Democracy Under Pope Leo XIV

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Patrick Gilger (Loyola University Chicago), drawing on his particular commitments as a Catholic priest and a sociologist, describes how Democracy Seminar seeks to understand and help build communities that are united not by pre-existing commonalities but by a commitment to a common search for the common good.

Relaunching the Democracy Seminar

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Michael Weinman (Indiana University Bloomington) and Siobhan Kattago (University of Tartu) discuss the relaunch of Democracy Seminar 3.0 and the founding of the European Democracy Institute as a space for critical reflection, debate, and transatlantic collaboration. Drawing on the intellectual legacies of Hannah Arendt and Fritz Stern, they examine contemporary authoritarianism, democratic backsliding, and the enduring relevance of thinking critically in times of crisis. Against the backdrop of shifting global power, it frames the renewed Democracy Seminar as a “third escape toward freedom”—an effort to sustain democratic imagination, accountability, and shared political responsibility.

The Democracy Seminar and Me

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Reflecting on the history of the Democracy Seminar, Jeffrey Goldfarb (The New School) traces its evolution from a semi-clandestine transnational network during the Cold War to its present role within the European Democracy Institute and the New School. The essay explores how decades of dialogue, disagreement, and collaboration shaped both the Seminar’s democratic commitments and Jeffrey Goldfarb’s own intellectual work, reaffirming the importance of critical public thought in times of democratic crisis.

Milei’s Right-Libertarian Populism 

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Javier Milei is one of the most eccentric figures in what Cas Mudde (2020) describes as the ‘fourth wave’ of far-right politics. This wave, characterized by the rise of radical ideas and their mainstream acceptance, is a global trend that is reshaping democracies. It is marked by the normalization of previously fringe ideas and agendas, creating new challenges for established political systems. Argentina, with its long history of …

The Truth of The New Right

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The Democracy Seminar relaunches with a renewed global mission: to connect scholars and democrats in confronting today’s mounting threats to democracy. In this new salvo, focused on the “truth” of the New Right, scholars examine how knowledge production and manipulation fuel the rise of illiberal movements in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and the United States—highlighting the urgent work needed to defend both democracy and truth.