The global economic crisis of 2008 immediately followed by the European sovereign debt crisis provoked a lively debate about the relationship between political and the economic spheres, or between democracy and capitalism, as well as critical reflections on the current state of democracy itself. Some authors argue that the current economic crisis was caused primarily by the neoliberal policy of deregulation of financial markets on both national and global level. In this context, the economic crisis may be considered as a mere consequence of a deeper political crisis – the crisis of democracy. The signs of this crisis include the impotence of democratic institutions in the face of the powers of global capital, privatization of public space, as well as depoliticisation of the decisions affecting the public affairs.
Nonetheless, the main symptom of the present crisis of (liberal) democracy is the perceived lack of a viable alternative to the neoliberal paradigm, which, in spite of having been shaken by the crisis, still maintains its hegemonic position. The sense of helplessness in the quest for the way out of the present crisis is apparent both in academic discourse and in political practice. The economic crisis has also instigated an increased interest in public affairs, or a revival of civil society, giving rise to such movements as Occupy or Democracy Now in the United States, the Indignados movement in Spain, or the Syntagma Square movement in Greece on one hand, and right-wing populist movements such as American Tea Party Movement, Finish True Finns Party, or Hungarian Jobbik on the other. Unlike the former, these populist parties and movements possess the will to pursue their share of governmental power through party politics. This may also explain why they are, at least from a certain perspective, politically more successful. This disconcerting situation faces us with the question of the role of civil society, or the potential and the limits of “non-political politics”.
The Democracy in Times of Crisis conference, jointly organised by the Institute of Political Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Institute of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University, aims to contribute to the debate about the current state and future perspectives of (liberal) democracy. The conference is open to researchers from the fields of political theory, political science, as well as other social and human sciences.
This Conference constitutes an output of PRVOUK Project No. 17 – Vědy o společnosti, politice a médiích ve výzvách doby [Sciences of Society, Politics, and Media under the Challenge of the Times], Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Studies & Faculty of Arts, Institute of Political Sciences.
