We recently welcomed Jennifer Schueler, Deputy Cultural Attaché from the US Embassy to Durham on Tuesday 29 October 2024. The key event during Ms Schueler’s visit was our ‘Rising Political Extremism in Anglo-American and European Democracies: Causes and Risks’ talk which focused on extremism, an issue that is challenging both nations.
This was one of a series of talks that the US Embassy sponsored involving other institutions across the UK. The speaker series brings prominent British and American experts together to discuss topics of mutual concern with the US from climate change to international security.
Our first event with the US Embassy and American Politics Group of the Political Studies Association provided an opportunity for our students to meet two world-class scholars, Professor Pippa Norris from Harvard University and Dr Lilliana Mason from Johns Hopkins University and engage in different topics related to their research followed by a lively Q&A session.
During the talk, Professor Norris provided an overview of democratic backsliding across the globe, where stable democratic regimes have embraced authoritarian leaders and rolled back protections of the democratic process. She highlighted how such leaders can only emerge in societies where there is already some popular desire for autocratic leaders, but the slide towards authoritarian tends to accelerate once they are elected.
Dr Mason explored the beliefs about democracy held by partisans in the United States, and what this tells us about political extremism. Her work has discovered that within the Republican Party there is a difference between people who believe that the 2020 election was “stolen” from President Trump and those who believe he simply lost. Her work compares weaker ties to democracy and violence, and Republicans who share similar democratic beliefs as Democrats and unaffiliated voters.
The presentations complemented numerous SGIA modules, ranging from introductory first year offerings on Democratic Political Systems to more advanced third year offerings that examine the 2024 presidential election. The topics raised by the two speakers have been incorporated into our seminars and students are excited to independently research these areas of study.
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