In the presentation, Gabor Scheiring addresses two related questions. First, he shows how economic shocks lead to inequalities in health and wellbeing, using mixed method evidence on the postsocialist mortality crisis and the deaths of despair epidemic in the US. Second, he shows how these inequalities in health and wellbeing contribute to the populist backlash, using comparative-historical and qualitative evidence from Hungary and East-Central Europe, as well as quantitative evidence covering twenty European countries. He makes two big intellectual arguments. First, he proposes that it is time to move beyond the rigid culture vs. economy dichotomy both in social demography and in populism studies. Second, he argues that shifting the focus of populism studies to inequalities in health, socio-economic disintegration, and business class polarization can open up new productive analytical vistas.
This is an online event. To join, please click here.
About the speaker:
Gabor Scheiring (Ph.D., Cambridge), is a Marie Curie Fellow at Bocconi University. His research addresses the political-economic determinants of inequality in health and wellbeing, and how these shape democracy and capitalist diversity. His book, The Retreat of Liberal Democracy (Palgrave, 2020) shows how working-class dislocation and business elite polarization enable illiberalism. As a member of the Hungarian Parliament (2010-2014) he advocated for a socially just transition to sustainability.