Citizens and Democratic Backsliding
Seminar co-taught with Natasha Wunsch at the 10th Swiss Summer School in Democracy Studies, examining how citizens perceive, respond to, and sometimes enable democratic backsliding.
I co-taught this seminar with Natasha Wunsch at the 10th Swiss Summer School in Democracy Studies, held at the University of Fribourg from 9–13 September 2024 on the theme of democratic backsliding. The session addressed how ordinary citizens, not just elites, shape the trajectory of democratic erosion: whether they recognise backsliding when it occurs, what personal or structural factors determine whether they resist or accommodate it, and under what conditions public opinion can act as a brake on authoritarian consolidation. The summer school brought together MA and PhD students from across Europe for an intensive programme of lectures, seminars, and roundtables on the theory and empirics of democratic regression.