Postponed - Tyranny of the Minority
The event "Tyranny of the Minority" had to be postponed to autumn 2024. Due to a personal matter Daniel Ziblatt was no longer able to visit Cologne at the end of May. We are sorry for any inconveniences!
Dear Members, Friends and Supporters of the AmerikaHaus NRW,
We cordially invite you to join us for a highly topical discussion in Cologne:
Tyranny of the Minority
Discussion with
Professor Daniel Ziblatt, Ph.D.,
Harvard University and WZB Berlin Social Science Center
moderated by
Dr. Elisabeth Schäfer-Wünsche
Wednesday, May 29, 2024 | 7.00 - 8.30 p.m.
Zentralbibliothek | Josef-Haubrich-Hof 1 | 50676 Cologne
Why is democracy under assault? And what can be done to protect it against radical minorities that seek to undermine, destabilize or even destroy it from within? In their bestelling book Tyranny of the Minority, co-authors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt illustrate the emergence of forces that threaten democratic principles and pave the way for an authoritarian turn - and they issue an urgent call to reform the American political system. But democracy is not only at stake in the United States, but also in Germany, Europe and other parts of the world.
Daniel Ziblatt is the director of Harvard University's Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies where he is also Eaton Professor of Government. In Germany, he leads a research group on "Transformations of Democracy" at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. His book How Democracies Die (co-authored with Steven Levitsky, Crown, 2018), a New York Times-bestseller, has been translated into thirty languages. In 2023, he published Tyranny of the Minority (also with Steven Levitsky), again a New York Times-bestseller, that analyzes American democracy in comparative perspective. That same year, Ziblatt was elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Elisabeth Schäfer-Wünsche is a literary and cultural scholar in the field of North American studies. Her teaching and publications cover a broad range of subjects relating to North America and to effects of colonialism and globalization. She is a lecturer at the universities of Düsseldorf, Bonn, Nijmegen and Paderborn and was spokesperson for the academic network „The Futures of (European) American Studies“.
This English-language event will be held in cooperation with the Stadtbibliothek Köln.