This seminar is planned as a hybrid event. Registration is required for non-CEU members.
For further information, please contact polemo@ceu.edu
Abstract: The democratic backsliding trends of the last decades brought the doctrine of militant democracy into the spotlight; this doctrine of democratic self-defence promotes the limitation of democratic competition for the sake of democratic competition itself. This scholarly interest has reached the realm of consociational democracies too, revealing an interesting paradox: while the power-sharing arrangements of consociations are built on often radical arrangements of inclusion, militant democracy aims to address democratic fragility with mechanisms of exclusion. Following the traditions of consociational scholarship, the nexus of the two phenomena has been addressed from empirical and behavioral angles, nevertheless the legal, and especially normative dimensions of this question have been overlooked so far. My research project aims to investigate the legitimate place of militant democracy in consociations, considering both intrinsic and instrumental approaches.
Bio: Andras Gal graduated at CEU in 2021 (PhD in Political Science, Political Theory track) and currently works at the Higher School of Economics Saint Petersburg as an assistant professor. His research focuses on courts and constitutionalism in divided societies and other fragile democracies.