Petra Schleiter: Strengthening democratic resilience: knowledge gaps and approaches

Democratic resilience is increasingly being tested by social polarization, rising support for populist-authoritarian politicians, and institutional backsliding. Across liberal democracies, citizens’ trust in each other and in democratic institutions, processes and politicians is eroding. How can that trust be rebuilt? And why have we made so little progress despite a tremendous amount of experimentation? Drawing on interdisciplinary insights from political science, sociology, psychology and public policy, this talk will explore state-of-the-art knowledge and critical gaps in understanding social cohesion and institutional resilience. It will explore approaches to strengthen the foundations of liberal democratic governance and outline why it is essential that we connect science with practice. 

Prof. Dr. Petra Schleiter is a Professor of Comparative Politics and a Fellow of St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford. She is currently leading the University of Oxford’s initiative to establish the Centre for Democratic Resilience, her research projects focusing on innovating democratic institutions, electoral participation, and the capacity of democratic societies to cohere in the context of diversity. For the academic year 2024-2025, she is based in Berlin as a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin).

[Bild: John Cairns]