Democracy against Domination: Power, Populism, and Resistance in the Era of Trump

Date: 

Tuesday, April 11, 2017, 12:00pm to 1:30pm

Location: 

Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Suite 200N, 124 Mt Auburn Street, Cambridge

The election of Donald Trump has provoked high-stakes clashes over the future of our democracy.  But many of the battles under way now were already driving American politics during and before the election: tensions about race, identity, and inclusion; about inequality and economic power; and about the very viability and efficacy of our democratic institutions themselves.  How should we understand today's reemergence of an exclusionary, right-populism -- and the prospects for a more inclusive and egalitarian alternative? Why have conventional approaches to liberalism and governance failed to address these deeper structural challenges of inequality, exclusion, and accountability?  How can American democracy address these deeper challenges going forward?  What does a genuine bottom-up, participatory, inclusive, and equitable democracy look like in the aftermath of the inequality crisis and the rise of rightwing populism? Drawing on the arguments of his recent book, Democracy Against Domination, K. Sabeel Rahman addresses these topics and more. 

Speaker 

K. Sabeel Rahman, Assistant Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School and Author of, "Democracy Against Domination"

Moderator

Jane Mansbridge, Charles F. Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values, Harvard Kennedy School

Lunch will be provided.