COCO 30 Democracy - A Challenged Concept
Three decades after the end of the cold war resurgent ultra-nationalism, parochial populism, white supremacy, anti-immigrant fervor, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and rabid misogyny undermine the stability and indefeasibility of European and American democracies. Commentators and scholars identify rampant capitalism, neoliberalism, globalization, and the untamed proliferation of new media as causes for the vulnerability democracies. While some consider the establishment of right-wing movements and politicians as expressions of a temporary populist phase or even the advent of a post-democratic age, others refer to white-supremacist attacks or the recurrence of KKK and neo-Nazi groups worldwide as harbingers of a new fascism. This course will discuss the central terms and concepts such as (illiberal) democracy, republicanism, neoliberalism, populism, or fascism, as well as (counter-) movements on both side such as the Tea Party, Alt-Right, the Brexit, as well as #MeToo, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter through a variety of artifacts, documentaries, movies, speeches, literary texts, news articles and theoretical debates.