Chair:  Prof. Daniele Conversi

Discussants: Prof. Luis Moreno

While some types of democracy can sustain ethnic and cultural diversity, other ones can clearly undermine it. Michael Mann's 'The Dark Side of Democracy' argues that extreme crimes like genocide and ethnic cleansing tend to occur, or at least be legitimized, within a majoritarian democracy framework. This panel seeks to broaden this approach in two ways: the first section explores whether majoritarian democracy should be conceived as the pre-existing institutional context in which democracy, via populism, can degenerate into self-destruction. The second section focuses on the more recent effects of neo-liberal globalization upon the functioning of the nation state. In particular, it focuses on the tendency by corporate-controlled governments to turn to patriotism and populism as sources of legitimacy at a time when the latter appears to be crumbling .

Session: Politics and Ethnicity

Language: English

http://www.ipsa.org/my-ipsa/events/madrid2012/panel/nationalism-majoritarianism-and-democracy-facing-challenge-neo-liber