Nadia Urbinati, "Transformations of Democracy"

Nadia Urbinati (Columbia University) presents "Transformations of Democracy."
In the last elections in Italy, which were won by a right-wing (and indeed center-extreme right) coalition, the party representing the center-left suffered a resounding defeat by what is traditionally considered a left-wing electorate: poor, unemployed, low-wage workers. These citizens largely did not vote, or if they did vote, they chose either the 5-Star Movement or the post-fascist party. Starting with these elections, Nadia Urbinati would like to address the issue of the breakdown of representation in democracies, that is, between elected officials and a large part of the citizenry. Taking the Italian case as the point of departure, she is going to discuss the issue of the decline of the left in contemporary democracy as the main reason for the success of the right wing. Populism is a part of this phenomenon, yet even more so are the authoritarian tendencies within democracies whose party systems are in decay.
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This talk was given on October 21, 2022 and was part of the monthly guest lecture series of the Transregional Dialogues fellowship program by the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies at The New School for Social Research.
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