Soft Author­i­tar­i­an­ism, a con­cept that appears con­tra­dic­to­ry, aims to cap­ture the cur­rent fuzzi­ness of democ­ra­cies slid­ing into author­i­tar­i­an rule the world over. For­mal elec­tions bol­ster the pow­er of strong­men, majori­tar­i­an democ­ra­cies under­mine the rights of minori­ties, the rule of law is hol­lowed out using the con­sti­tu­tion, and dis­cours­es of free­dom of expres­sion are deployed to dis­man­tle fun­da­men­tal human rights.

Our Research Group stud­ies in com­par­a­tive per­spec­tive the flu­id and flex­i­ble polit­i­cal, juridi­cal, social and dis­cur­sive con­fig­u­ra­tions which blur the line between demo­c­ra­t­ic and author­i­tar­i­an prac­tices of rule. It exam­ines how soft author­i­tar­i­anisms of var­i­ous vari­eties are estab­lished and con­test­ed in dif­fer­ent con­texts. How are these new forms of rule legit­imized dis­cur­sive­ly, imple­ment­ed insti­tu­tion­al­ly? How are respon­si­bil­i­ties and account­abil­i­ty watered down, pow­er cen­tral­ized and its trans­fer imped­ed? What forms of mobi­liza­tion and action by cit­i­zens attempt to stem the slow and sys­tem­at­ic ero­sion of lib­er­al demo­c­ra­t­ic insti­tu­tions? In what ways has the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic exac­er­bat­ed author­i­tar­i­an ten­den­cies and are they here to stay?

Our four con­trastive case stud­ies link­ing ethnog­ra­phy with dis­course analy­sis and doc­u­men­tary research focus on Poland, France, India, and Turkey/​the Turk­ish-Euro­pean diaspora.


Elec­tions, Tac­tics and Vio­lence – Erdoğan’s Soft Author­i­tar­i­an­ism and the Cur­rent Devel­op­ments (Part II)

Ulrike Flad­er and Çetin Gür­er18. April 202516 min read

In light of the recent wave of arrests tar­get­ing politi­cians of the main oppo­si­tion par­ty CHP – includ­ing the promi­nent May­or of Istan­bul, Ekrem İmamoğlu – and the sub­se­quent mass…

Elec­tions, Tac­tics and Vio­lence – Erdoğan’s Soft Author­i­tar­i­an­ism and the Cur­rent Devel­op­ments (Part I)

Ulrike Flad­er and Çetin Gür­er18. April 202517 min read

In light of the recent wave of arrests tar­get­ing politi­cians of the main oppo­si­tion par­ty CHP – includ­ing the promi­nent May­or of Istan­bul, Ekrem İmamoğlu – and the sub­se­quent mass…

Wahlen, Tak­tiken und Gewalt - Erdoğans soft-autoritäres Regime angesichts der aktuellen Entwick­lun­gen (Teil II)

Ulrike Flad­er and Çetin Gür­er14. April 202518 min read

Angesichts der jüng­sten Ver­haf­tungswelle gegen Poli­tik­erin­nen und Poli­tik­er der größten Oppo­si­tion­spartei CHP ein­schließlich dem berühmten Ober­bürg­er­meis­ter Ekrem Imamoğlu und die darauf­fol­gen­den Massendemon­stra­tio­nen im ganzen Land, wird in der Türkei die…

Wahlen, Tak­tiken und Gewalt – Erdoğans soft-autoritäres Regime angesichts der aktuellen Entwick­lun­gen (Teil I)

Ulrike Flad­er and Çetin Gür­er14. April 202518 min read

Angesichts der jüng­sten Ver­haf­tungswelle gegen Poli­tik­erin­nen und Poli­tik­er der größten Oppo­si­tion­spartei CHP ein­schließlich dem berühmten Ober­bürg­er­meis­ter Ekrem Imamoğlu und die darauf­fol­gen­den Massendemon­stra­tio­nen im ganzen Land, wird in der Türkei die…

Intro­duc­ing Pod­cast Series: Democ­ra­cy in Question

S10E06: Ivan­ka Popović on the Ser­bian Protests (Part 1) 

1. May 202540:23

This episode explores the mass stu­­dent-led protests in Ser­bia against cor­rup­tion of the regime. How did moral out­rage over a fatal rail­way sta­tion roof col­lapse in 2024 fuel a large-scale…

S10E05: Soli Özel on Turkey’s Polit­i­cal Protests 

16. April 202546:31

This episode explores the broad impli­ca­tions of the large-scale protests across Turkey in response to Pres­i­dent Erdoğan’s repres­sion of polit­i­cal oppo­si­tion. What is the back­ground to the recent devel­op­ments that…

S10E04: Cara Daggett Unpacks Petro-Masculinity 

2. April 202556:31

This episode explores Cara Dagget­t’s con­cept of petro-mas­­culin­i­­ty. It explains how fos­sil fuel-based pow­er struc­tures depend on a gen­dered and racial order­ing of the world. How do the threats of…

S10E03: Nacim Pak-Shi­raz on Cul­tur­al Con­tra­dic­tions in Iran 

19. March 202547:52

This episode explores the mul­ti­ple con­tra­dic­tions of Iran­ian soci­ety today. What are the lim­its for Iran­ian cul­tur­al pro­duc­ers? And what tac­tics do they employ to cir­cum­vent cen­sor­ship and social taboos?…

Pop­ulist Twists and the Dan­gers for Democracy

May152025

Time: 16:15–17:45

Loca­tion: Uni­ver­sität Bremen/​ Rotunde im Cartesium

Guest Lec­ture by Paula Diehl

Paula Diehl’s work engages with com­plex­i­ties of pop­ulism as a flu­id and mul­ti­di­men­sion­al phe­nom­e­non. In her nuanced and rig­or­ous analy­sis, she looks into the ide­o­log­i­cal, com­mu­ni­ca­tion­al and organ­i­sa­tion­al dimen­sions of pop­ulism that allow to detect tem­po­ral shifts. For her, pop­ulism is not nec­es­sar­i­ly author­i­tar­i­an, but its spe­cif­ic char­ac­ter­is­tics can entail severe dan­gers for democracy.

Draw­ing on her notion of “pop­ulist twists”, this lec­ture will explore the ways in which pop­ulism reshapes the polit­i­cal land­scape by trans­form­ing the rela­tion­ship between lead­ers, their fol­low­ers, and demo­c­ra­t­ic norms. It will focus on the actu­al mech­a­nisms that dis­tort demo­c­ra­t­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tion illus­trat­ing the ways in which pop­ulist actors eclipse the ten­sions between account­abil­i­ty and autho­riza­tion, between hor­i­zon­tal and ver­ti­cal pow­er, by using notions of equal­i­ty, pop­u­lar sov­er­eign­ty and dis/​​trust. Hence, the lec­ture high­lights the ambiva­lent rela­tion­ship to democ­ra­cy that pop­ulism relies on and helps us not only to under­stand the role of inher­ent con­tra­dic­tions, but also the work­ings of far-right ide­ol­o­gy, dis­course and prac­tice today.

Paula Diehl is Pro­fes­sor of Polit­i­cal The­o­ry, His­to­ry of Ideas, and Polit­i­cal Cul­ture and direc­tor of the Inter­na­tion­al Pop­ulism Research Net­work at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kiel. Her research focus­es on polit­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tion, polit­i­cal imag­i­nar­ies, and pop­ulism. Recent pub­li­ca­tions include the edit­ed vol­ume The Com­plex­i­ty of Pop­ulism (co-edit­ed with Brigitte Bar­getz, 2024) and a spe­cial issue on pop­ulism, con­cepts and meth­ods for Poli­ty (co-edit­ed with Tim Weber, 2022).