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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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
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
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
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
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).