Legalist assaults on democracy

>The twentieth century witnessed the emergence of a type of anti-democratic challenges in which contenders for exclusive state power framed their power bids in a legalist fashion. The purpose of this presentation will be to analyze the modalities and the impact of this type of authoritarian challenges in light of a case that lays bare the logic of the processes at play with particular clarity: the National Socialists’ dismantling of democratic institutions in 1933.

Discussant: Claire Andrieu (Sciences Po, CHSP)

Ivan Ermakoff is Sewell-Bascom Professor of Sociology - affiliated with the Department of History and the Center for Jewish Studies - at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research agenda is centered on the dynamics of collective interactions, modes of governance and transition process in conflict-ridden conjunctures.

Suggested supplementary readings:

• Frail Democracy, in Militant Democracy, Political Science, law, and Philosophy, ed. by Afshin Ellian and Bastiaan Rijpkema (Springer 2018), pp. 47-60
• Law against the Rule of Law: Assaulting Democracy, Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 47, n°1, Oct. 2020, pp. S164-S186
• Preface, Ruling Oneself Out: A Theory of Collective Abdications (Duke University Press, 2008)

Organizers:

• Florence Bernault (Sciences Po, CHSP)
• Samuel Hayat (Sciences Po, CEVIPOF)
• Julie Saada (Sciences Po, Sciences Po Law School)

MORE INFORMATION

Contact: centre.histoire@sciencespo.fr

Bilingual seminar online and in-person.

Invite-only event.