The past and future of liberal democracies

Dear LinkedIn community,

When we think about the future of democracy, we also need to talk about the past. This insight ran like a common thread through our event series entitled Democracies under threat.

Many developments and their consequences that we are experiencing today are not new. The question remains as to whether we can learn from the past and manage to shape a future in which liberal democracies gain stability and the currently emerging autocracies can be curbed.?

From political figurehead Wolfgang Sch?uble to influential thinker Steven Pinker of 美国哈佛大学 and The Nobel Prize laureate Herta Müller, a wealth of expert opinions and discussions have come together, which we are happy to share with you.

The CDU Deutschlands ???? politician Wolfgang Sch?uble spoke at the University of Zurich about the future of free democracy. In his speech, he painted a cautiously optimistic picture, peppered with anecdotes and quotes from his impressive political career. When speaking about the war in ???? Ukraine, he admitted critically: "We could have seen a lot coming."

If people can be rational, why does humanity seem to be losing its mind? This was one central question that Steven Pinker of 美国哈佛大学 addressed in his talk in a fully packed auditorium at the University of Zurich . Pinker answered the question in two steps. First, he provided various explanations, including motivated reasoning, deeply rooted folk intuitions, or teleology, making people believe that the world is designed with a purpose. In a second step, he addressed the issue of trust: "Weird beliefs persist in people who don’t trust the establishment."

Several developments in Western democracies over the past decade have sparked worries about political stability. Standing out are the rise of radical political parties, heated polarization around questions of immigration, nationalism, or social liberalism, and – in some cases – attacks on democratic institutions. However, conflict and choice between clearly distinctive alternative ideas of how societies and economies should be governed are at the heart of democracy. Democracy needs competition and conflict. But where is the line between healthy and harmful conflict and polarization? Silja H?usermann and Simon Bornschier of the UZH Department of Political Science address this question in our new Public Paper.

It is difficult to pick out a highlight from this year’s Forum for Economic Dialogue at Kongresshaus Zürich / Zurich Convention Center , as all the sessions were exceptional. The relentlessly honest and touching opening speech by The Nobel Prize laureate Herta Müller, who spoke about her youth in ???? Romania under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceau?escu, certainly deserves special mention. Other highlights included the Zurich Lecture of Economics in Society by democracy expert Daniel Ziblatt of 美国哈佛大学 and the debate between Hélène Landemore of 耶鲁大学 and Jason Brennan of 美国乔治敦大学 .

Our speakers were sought-after interview partners for the ???? Swiss press around the event series. We present the entire press review on our website with articles from NZZ , Tages-Anzeiger , Republik Magazine , Schweizer Monat ?or SRF - Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen . For our readers, we have translated most of the articles from German into English.

Find out why Steven Pinker is convinced that "we always live in hard and difficult times"?or why Wolfgang Sch?uble thinks that "Putin will – to put it sarcastically – help Europe to find itself."

We look forward to staying in touch with you.

Sincere regards,

Ernst Fehr, Director

Hans-Joachim Voth, Scientific Director

University of Zurich UBS UZH Department of Economics UZH Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics