Dear Colleagues,



On the behalf of Meiji University and Boston College's Clough Center for Constitutional Democracy, I am pleased to invite you to the conference "Democracies in Peril" organized by the two institutions on October 11, Friday and October 12, Saturday on the main campus at Ochanomizu / Kanda-Surugadai of Meiji University. The theme of the conference will be "Capitalism, Populism, and Democracy".



This is the second part of this twin conference, with the first part having taken place already in Boston in April (see here https://www.bc.edu/centers/cloughcenter/events/democracies-in-peril.html). The Boston theme of the conference was "Crisis or Challenge: Is the Democracy Crisis An Invention?" while the specific to Tokyo theme will be "Capitalism, Populism, and Democracy".



Our general objective is to take stock of the current crisis of liberal democracy and the rise of illiberal populism around the globe. We hope to establish theoretical and analytical frameworks that can help guide future discussions on the fate of liberal democracy, bringing in perspectives from various disciplines and various regions around the globe. We also want to explore the various viable alternatives to liberal democracy. What does this mean for the present and future? How real is this crisis, really? Is it simply "froth" on the surface of the news cycle? Or is there something deeper going on? And if so, what are those deeper factors? If there is a crisis, how global is it? Does it threaten consolidated democracies as well as more recent or marginal democratic regimes?



Among the most notable participants in the conference are Yascha Mounk (Johns Hopkins University); Susan Stokes (University of Chicago); Wolfgang Merkel (Humboldt University); Takis Pappas (Central European University), Kosaku Dairokuno (Meiji University), Amilcar Barreto (Northeastern University), Joseph Chan (Hong Kong University), Justin Frosini (Bocconi University), and many others.



The schedule of the conference (as of September 24th) is as follows:



October 11 (Fri)


09:00 Registration


09:30 Welcome Remarks: Vice President Dairokuno and Dean Konishi (Meijji University)


09:40 Video Address by prof. Timothy Garton Ash (Oxford University)


09:45 Panel 1: Historical waves of Democratic Breakdown
Prof. Devin Pendas; Prof. Felix Jimenez, Q&As


11:15 Coffee Break


11:30 Panel 2: Crisis or Paranoia: Is Democracy Really in Peril?
Prof. Susan Stokes; Prof. Wolfgang Merkel; Ipek Cinar, Q&As


13:00 Lunch Break


14:00 Panel 3: Constitutional stability and Democratic Breakdown
Prof. Vlad Perju; Prof. Justin Frosini; Q&As


15:30 Coffee Break


15:45 Panel 4: Populism vs. Democracy
Prof. Takis Pappas; Prof. Yasha Mounk; Q&As


17:15 Coffee Break


17:30 Keynote Address
"Capitalism, Populism, and Democracy" by Prof. Wolfgang Merkel


October 12 (Sat)


09:00 Registration


09:30 Panel 5: Democracy Death by Thousand Cuts
Prof. Mabel Berezin; prof. Amilcar Barreto; prof. Liubomir Topaloff; Q&As


11:00 Coffee Break


11:15 Panel 6: Economy, Globalization, and Society
Prof. Kosaku Dairokuno; Prof. Shujiro Yazawa; Prof. Liubomir Topaloff; Q&As



12:45 Lunch Break


13:45 Panel 7: Non-Western Alternatives to Liberal Democracy
Prof. Mirjam Künkler; Prof. Joseph Chan; Q&As


15:15 Coffee Break


15:30 Round Table: The Future of Democracy
Prof. Pappas; Prof. Stokes; Prof. Merkel; Prof. Mounk; Q&As; Moderator prof. Topaloff


17:30 Closing Remarks



*Details of the schedule may be subject to change, particularly depending of the number of participants and/or presentations.



For further details please, refer to the attached posters (in English and Japanese), and to the following websites:



https://www.meiji.ac.jp/seikei/information/2019/6t5h7p00001q782u.html

https://www.facebook.com/dkosaku/posts/2545305175489478




For further inquires, or if you have any questions for the conference, please send an email to the following address: populism2019meiji@gmail.com <mailto:populism2019meiji@gmail.com> or contact me at topaloff@meiji.ac.jp <mailto:topaloff@meiji.ac.jp>



Attendance is FREE.



We hope many of you will join us for this event.



L.Topaloff



__________________________________________
Liubomir K. Topaloff, Ph.D.



Associate Professor of Political Science

School of Political Science and Economics

Meiji University

1-1 Kanda-Surugadai, Chiyoda-ku

Research Building #14, Room B310

Tokyo, Japan 101-8301


tel: +81 3 3296-3109

cell: +81 80 4388-6800


Visiting Research Fellow


Clough Center for Constitutional Democracy

Boston College

Chestnut Hill, MA


tel: +1 (617) 818-6800

cell: +1 (617) 480-4540