🌍 ECPS Virtual Workshop Series
🧭 “We, the People” and the Future of Democracy: Interdisciplinary Approaches
📅 September 2025 – April 2026 | 💻 Online via Zoom
🗳️ Session 6 — Populism and the Crisis of Representation: Reimagining Democracy in Theory and Practice
📆 Thursday, November 13, 2025 — 🕒 15:00–17:00 (CET)
📌 The European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS) invites you to Session 6 of its ongoing workshop series. This session brings together leading scholars to examine how populism reshapes democratic legitimacy, public representation, and the contested meaning of “the people.”
⚡️As the boundary between representation and responsiveness continues to blur, this session explores new theoretical and empirical approaches to democracy’s contemporary crisis — including party de-alignment, institutional erosion, democratic populism, and alternative visions of the political.
👩⚖️ Chair
📌 Ilhan Kaya (
@ilhankayadr, PhD — Visiting Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada); Former Professor, Yıldız Technical University (Turkey)
🎓 Speakers & Papers
📌 Jonathan Madison —
@JonMadison26 | PhD, R Street Institute
📝 De-Exceptionalizing Democracy: Rethinking Established and Emerging Democracies in a Changing World
📌 João Mauro Gomes Vieira de Carvalho — ISA; LabPol/Unesp
📝 Mobilizing for Disruption: A Sociological Interpretation of the Role of Populism in the Crisis of Democracy
📌 Andreea Zamfira — Associate Professor, University of Bucharest
📝 Daniel Barbu’s and Peter Mair’s Theoretical Perspectives on Post-Politics and Post-Democracy
📌 Thibaut Dauphin — @dauphin_thibaut | PhD, University of Bordeaux
📝 Overcoming the Demagogic Impasse: The Historical Benefits of Democratic Populism
💬 Discussants
📌 Amedeo Varriale —
@varriale_amedeo | PhD, University of East London
📌 Amir Ali — Assistant Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
‼️ This session tackles key questions at the center of contemporary politics:
🔹 How is populism reshaping the logic of representation?
🔹 Are we witnessing democratic decay — or democratic reinvention?
🔹 Can democratic populism offer pathways beyond demagoguery and polarization?
By engaging multiple disciplinary perspectives — from political theory to sociology and democratic governance — this workshop seeks to map new conceptual strategies for understanding and reimagining democracy today.
🧠 Join us for this timely conversation on the future of representation, legitimacy, and democratic practice.
🔗 Register here:
us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi…
🔗 More information:
populismstudies.org/workshop…
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