A new webinar, organised by ARENAS and the Centre d’Estudis sobre Dictadures i Democràcies (Research Centre about Democracies and Dictatorships, CEDID-UAB), took place on the 3rd of July to discuss one of the most relevant and up-to-date topics: democratic erosion and its consequences to modern-day democracies.
To analyse, and better understand the concept, an expert on the field, Nicolás Emmanuel Olivares, researcher of CONICET in Argentina and currently visiting professor with Carolina Foundation in the University of Girona, was invited to present his most recent research in a fascinating and highly enriching knowledge interchange between the ARENAS members present and other external researchers.
In the presentation moderated by Steven Forti, professor of Contemporary History in Autonomous University of Barcelona and WP3 leader, Olivares pointed out the importance of interdisciplinary work between historians, sociologists, law makers and political philosophers to better understand and counter the risk that our democracies face today, but the key point of the seminar was learning more about the different kind of scenarios democracies can face: democratic erosion, democratic deconsolidation and democratic regression. While in the scenario of democratic erosion, far-right parties and political and social actors propose to cut some political and social rights, in the democratic deconsolidation scenario, these actors act by the government cutting some of these rights. In the third scenario, democratic regression, some major changes occur, usually with a constitutional reform of the whole state, and even sometimes also changing the name or part of the name of the country.
All in all, thanks to Dr. Olivares, the seminar provided a very useful moment for researchers from ARENAS and outside ARENAS to get a better view of the state of democracies and some of their potential threats. A video of the webinar will be available to view shortly on the ARENAS YouTube Channel.
