210323 - The Struggle for Inclusion: Muslim Minorities and the Democratic Ethos with Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, University of Bergen & Paul Sniderman, Stanford University

CEE General Seminar

Sciences Po, via Zoom, compulsory registration

The politics of inclusion is about more than hate, exclusion, and discrimination. It is a window into the moral character of contemporary liberal democracies. The Struggle for Inclusion* introduces a new method to the study of public opinion: to probe, step by step, how far non-Muslim majorities are willing to be inclusive, where they draw the line, and why they draw it there and not elsewhere. Those committed to liberal democratic values and their concerns are the focus, not those advocating exclusion and intolerance.

Notwithstanding the turbulence and violence of the last decade over issues of immigration and of Muslims in the West, the results of this study demonstrate that the largest number of citizens in contemporary liberal democracies are more open to inclusion of Muslims than has been recognized. Not less important, the book reveals limits on inclusion that follow from the friction between liberal democratic values. This pioneering work thus brings to light both pathways to progress and polarization traps.

Speakers:

Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, Professor of Political Science and scientific director of the Digital Social Science Core Facility at the University of Bergen, Norway

Elisabeth Ivarsflaten holds a D. Phil. an M. Phil from Oxford University and a B.A. from Columbia University. Her best-known work on far-right voting and public opinion about immigrants has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, the British Journal of Political Science, and Comparative Political Studies. She was recently awarded an ERC CoG-grant to pursue the research agenda on inclusive politics introduced in The Struggle for Inclusion.

Paul M. Sniderman, Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr., Professor of Public Policy at Stanford University and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Paul M. Sniderman holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. from the University of Toronto. He is, most recently, author of The Democratic Faith and coauthor of Paradoxes of Liberal Democracy: Islam, Western Europe and the Danish Cartoon Crisis. His innovative use of survey experiments has inspired generations of political science scholars.

Discussion:

Anja Durovic, associate researcher at Sciences Po, CEE

Laura Morales, Sciences Po, CEE

Chair:

Nonna Mayer, Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS

* The Struggle for Inclusion. The mass politics of cultural and religious diversity in established democracies (Chicago University Press, forthcoming)

Compulsory Registration

For more information: contact.cee@sciencespo.fr