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

Dispatches

Category: Dispatches

Electoral Revolution: The Collapse of Hungary’s Electoral Autocracy

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András Bozóki (Central European University) and Andrea Szabó and Zoltán Gábor Szűcs-Zágoni (Eötvös Loránd University) argue that while TISZA’s performance in the April 12th election may not be a new model for fighting autocracy by electoral revolutions, it is a paradigm case for perfectly using the instruments originally designed to maintain an electoral autocratic regime against the regime, without resorting to violence.

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.

Small Acts of Repair

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Through personal encounters in Poland, Israel, and the United States, Jeffrey Goldfarb (Michael E. Gellert Professor of Sociology Emeritus at The New School for Social Research) reflects on the power of small acts of repair in times of political violence and moral devastation. Drawing connections between historical memory, contemporary protest, and everyday gestures of solidarity, it argues that even fragile acts of care can sustain hope and ethical responsibility in dark times.

Why We Are Founding the European Democracy Institute

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Berit Ebert (Professor at Bard College Berlin) and Boris Vormann (Professor at Bard College Berlin) discuss the foundation of the European Democracy Institute as a new co-host of the Democracy Seminar — as well as its role as a vital center for research, public debate, and educational initiatives on democracy in the 21st century.

Will Trump Betray Taiwan?

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Time to Get Serious About Defending Democracy in the Indo-Pacific On July 31, 2025, news erupted that Taiwan’s President “William” Lai Ching-te had been denied entry to the United States by a Trump administration eager to curry favor with China. As his predecessors had done with regularity, President Lai planned to stop-over in America enroute to visiting allies in Latin America, but the Trump White House slammed the door …

Poland’s Presidential Election, and the Dangerous, Uncertain Future

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So how to make sense of last Sunday’s (June 1) Polish presidential elections, in which the candidate of the far-right, Karol Nawrocki of the Law and Justice Party (PiS), defeated the liberal mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski, from Civic Platform? I had a sense this would be the result, after first-round voting gave the combined far-right parties a near majority total.

The Constitution of Freedom: A Reply to Micah Beckwith’s Misreading of the 3/5 Compromise

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Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith recently took to X to post a short video denouncing the “DEI radical revisionist history” taught by “professors at woke schools.” His target: the idea that the 3/5 Compromise “was some terrible thing in our past.” This compromise—one of the compromises through which the U.S. Constitution was established in 1787—incorporated this language into Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution: “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned …