The Global Democracy Conference (GDC) returns in 2027, with scholars, policymakers, and activists coming together in Mexico City to explore urgent strategies for defending and renewing democracy worldwide. This year’s theme, Who Decides? Democracy Between Majorities and Minorities, will guide three days of keynotes, plenary roundtables, and breakout sessions featuring academic and policy partners of the Kellogg Institute.

Across democracies worldwide, institutional checks and balances have been instrumental in slowing down democratic erosion. From processes of judicial review by constitutional courts, to qualified majority thresholds in parliament, to independent electoral management bodies, strong institutions have served as guardrails against the illiberal impulses of popular executives. And yet, by keeping certain issues “beyond the reach of majorities”, countermajoritarian norms and bodies have been described as undemocratic by both political actors and democracy scholars. Depending on their context and design, countermajoritarian institutions can protect rights essential to the democratic process or rather empower minorities at the cost of the popular will. The conference will address this tension at the heart of the democratic process by exploring the following key questions:

  • When do rules that limit majorities, like supermajority requirements or judicial review, actually safeguard democracy, and when do they just slow down legitimate demands for change?
  • When do citizens see institutions such as courts and electoral management bodies as guardians of democracy, and when do they see them as elite vetoes blocking the popular will?
  • How can opposition parties, subnational governments, social and indigenous movements, and civil society groups, use institutions to defend democracy when ruling majorities overreach?
  • How can elected majorities carry out meaningful reforms — of elections, courts, bureaucracies, or security laws — without undercutting the protections that keep future elections free and rights intact?

The 2027 Global Democracy Conference will convene scholars and practitioners to explore new areas of collaboration between academia and the policy world, connect scholars and practitioners from different regions of the world, and improve our collective ability to engage in genuine democratic reforms, while both protecting minority rights and honoring the popular will.

For any questions regarding the conference, please contact Eduardo Pagés.