Canada Research Chair in German and European Studies, Centre Canadien D‘Études Allemandes et Européennes, Université de Montréal

Visiting Fellow
(May – July 2016)

Project:

Forms, Style and Manners: Democracy as a Way of Life

Everyone is talking about crisis of democracy. Till van Rahden challenges the prevailing sense of despair. Instead of obsessing about how democracies die, it might be more useful to explore what keeps them alive. Democracy is not just a system of government, but a fragile way of life grounded in democratic manners and a democratic ethos. It is sustained and revived in democratic encounters and conflicts that allow for aesthetic experiences of freedom and equality.

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