Tackling Polarization and Strengthening Democracy
Wednesday, November 20 @ 10:00 am - 11:30 am
Democracy in Canada and around the world is facing serious challenges, including polarized politics and a mistrustful and disengaged electorate. What can we do? Join this webinar to learn more about what’s happening in our democracy and solutions that can help turn things around.
Special Guests: Jennifer McCoy is professor of political science at Georgia State University and nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She coined the term “pernicious polarization” to refer to the political polarization that divides societies into mutually distrustful “Us vs. Them” camps, and undermines the capacity of democracies to address critical policy problems. Her recent book is entitled Polarizing Polities: A Global Threat to Democracy.
David Moscrop is has a PhD in political science and is a contributing columnist with the Washington Post, the host of current affairs podcasts (Open to Debate and Left Looking In), and the author of the book “Too Dumb for Democracy” about why we make bad political decisions.
Kamil Bernaerts is PhD student at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) and University of Warwick (UK). His research is focused on the relation between polarization and democracy. He is lead author of the journal article “Institutional design and polarisation. Do consensus democracies fare better in fighting polarisation than majoritarian democracies?”