Lieu : Nanoose Place Community Centre | 2925 Northwest Bay Road, Nanoose Bay, BC, V9P 9E6

Description :

Is democracy (as we know it) an endangered species? In this talk, Michael K. MacKenzie examines the state of democracy in the world today, as well as its past and potential futures. He argues that democracy is a way of doing politics that treats people as autonomous beings to be reasoned with instead of objects to be moved, manipulated, or used. When we navigate our disagreements using persuasion, deliberation, negotiation, compromise, or voting, we are acting democratically. But democracy is difficult to do well. It involves working with others, tolerating disagreements, and embracing the fact that people have potentially legitimate but divergent interests and perspectives. Democracies around the world are being threatened by autocratic leaders such as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin who deny election loses or use violence and intimidation to get what they want. We may see the end of electoral democracy as we know it, but we will not see the end of democracy (just as we cannot clearly establish its beginnings). Democracy — like violence — is part of the human condition. We act democratically when it is pragmatic to do so. The challenge, then, is to create conditions that are conducive to democracy while making other forms of politics, such as intimidation and violence, more costly and thus less pragmatic and less desirable.

Presenter: Michael K. MacKenzie has spent the past 20 years studying and writing about democracy. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of British Columbia, an MA in political science & social statistics from McGill, and a BA from the University of Winnipeg. He was a policy analyst and facilitator with the Ontario Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform, a post-doctoral researcher at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the inaugural Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership at the Vancouver Island University.

Places disponibles : 150 sur 150

Prix : 10,00 $ Taxes incluses

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