Global Democracy at Risk: Why it Matters and What Can Be Done
In Nicaragua, the authoritarian regime is shuttering universities. In India, nationalist leaders undercut the rights of the Muslim minority. In Niger, the military overthrew the elected president a few months ago. In many parts of the world where democrats once had hope, backsliding is becoming the norm. What is the current state of democracy in different parts of the world? Why is democracy at risk? Should we care? And what can be done?
This event will consider these questions and explore how the University, the Keough School, and the Kellogg Institute can address the important issues surrounding democratic governance today. We will also discuss the Kellogg Institute's role in the University of Notre Dame's new Democracy Initiative.
Speakers:
Jaimie Bleck
Associate Professor of Political Science
Senior Research Advisor, Ford Program
Kellogg Faculty Fellow
Juan Sebastián Chamorro
Economist, Businessman, Politician
Hewlett Visiting Fellow for Public Policy
Susan Ostermann
Assistant Professor of Global Affairs
Kellogg Faculty Fellow
David Campbell
Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy
Director, University of Notre Dame Democracy Initiative
R. Scott Appleby
Marilyn Keough Dean, Keough School of Global Affairs
Professor of History
Moderator:
Aníbal Pérez-Liñán
Professor of Political Science and Global Affairs
Director, Kellogg Institute
Jaimie Bleck
Jaimie Bleck is an associate professor of political science and the senior research advisor for the Ford Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. She also is a concurrent faculty member in the Keough School of Global Affairs. She has been a Kellogg Institute faculty fellow since 2011...
Juan Sebastián Chamorro
Juan Sebastián Chamorro is a Nicaraguan economist, businessman, and politician. He was a pre-candidate for president in the 2021 Nicaraguan general election until he was detained in a wave of arrests of opposition candidates and other civic leaders. He was released from prison and banished from Nicaragua in February 2023...
Susan Ostermann
Susan Ostermann is an assistant professor of global affairs at the University of Notre Dame and an expert in comparative politics in South Asia, regulatory compliance, and environmental regulation. Her work seeks to understand why actors comply with regulations in unlikely circumstances, such as when states are weak or actors have strong incentives to break the law. She has been a Kellogg Institute faculty fellow since 2018...
David Campbell
David Campbell leads the Democracy Initiative at the University of Notre Dame and is the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy in the Department of Political Science. His research focuses on civic and political engagement, with particular attention to religion and young people...
R. Scott Appleby
Scott Appleby is the Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Global Affairs and professor of history at the University of Notre Dame. From 2014 to 2024 he served as the Marilyn Keough Dean in the Keough School of Global Affairs and before that, the director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies...