Aktuell
22.01.2025
Online seminar: Autocratization in the United States
Wednesday, January 29th, 2025, at 2:10 PM (CET) / online via Zoom
An open seminar session and discussion with
Professor Erica Frantz, Ph.D.
(Michigan State University)
Time and date: January 29, 2025, at 2:10 PM (CET)
Washington, DC (8:10 PM)
London (1:10 PM)
Place: Online (Zoom) link: https://zoom.us/j/8187857170?omn=91755234678
Meeting-ID: 818 785 7170
Topic:
One week after the return of Mr. Trump into office as President of the United States, we take the opportunity to speak about the future of political rule and the political regime in the US. Some predict that after almost 250 years, Trump’s second term will include the demise of the democratic regime in the US. While some scholars had already warned about “How Democracies Die” during his first term in office (2016-2020), this time there is a masterplan for the coming four years. Day 1 in office saw the president deploying the US army domestically after having proclaimed emergency rule in the area bordering Mexico; the pardoning of ca 1500 perpetrators of the infamous Jan 6th Insurgency who, in 2020, stormed the Capitol in order to prevent the Congress from instating former president Biden; and a breach of a recent court verdict that banned TikTok. What lies ahead for American democracy? Will it weather the storm that appears to be on the horizon, will democratic institutions and procedures prove resilient, or will the US undergo a process of authoritarianization similar to those we have already seen in several parts of the world, including Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East?
Participants are warmly invited to discuss with our guest and receive a first-hand expert assessment from ‘within the lion’s den.’
Professor Erica Frantz …
…is an associate professor in political science at Michigan State University and has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tübingen’s Institute of Political Science 2022-2024. She figures prominently among no more than a handful of today’s globally leading experts on authoritarianism and dictatorship, and on processes of “autocratization”, i.e.: the breakdown of democracy and its transformation into an authoritarian regime. She has also been awarded, together with Barbara Geddes and Joseph Wright, the Lijphart-Przeworski-Verba Comparative Politics Dataset Award (2015). Among her many books, single and co-authored, are recently:
- The Origin of Elected Strongmen: How Personalist Parties Destroy Democracy From Within (2024; Oxford UP)
- Democracies and Authoritarian Regimes (2019; Oxford UP)
- How Dictatorships Work: Power, Personalization and Collapse (2019; Cambridge UP)
- Authoritarianism: What Everybody Needs to Know (2018; Oxford UP).
Her work has also appeared in many of the leading scholarly journals of the discipline such as, i.a.: the Annual Review of Political Science; Perspectives on Politics; Democratization; Journal of Democracy; Comparative Political Studies (CPS); Research & Politics; Journal of Politics; International Studies Quarterly (ISQ); International Political Science Review (IPSR); or Electoral Studies - apart from a wealth of contributions to non-academic outlets such as Foreign Affairs, The Washington Quarterly, The Monkey Cage, and many others more.