Authoritarian Trends and Parliamentary Democracy in Europe

Описание: How can we counteract the observable rise in authoritarian attitudes and the loss of trust for democracy in European societies?

On 27 May 2025 the House of European History held a discussion and live reading by actors from the book “Authoritarian Trends and Parliamentary Democracy in Europe” by Oliver Rathkolb and Sybille Steinbacher.

Participants debated models and strategies developed to tackle the growing dissatisfaction with the functioning of democracy that came out as the key finding of the study, commissioned by editors in eight European countries.

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Speakers

Nathalie Brack - Professor in Political science, researcher at the Cevipol, co-Editor of the Journal of European Integration and Member of the Steering Committee of the ECPR Standing group on the European Union.

Edit Innotai - senior fellow and board member of the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy (CEID), an independent think tank based in Budapest.

Oliver Rathkolb - former Head of Department and Professor emeritus at the Department of Contemporary History, University of Vienna (Austria), academic director of the Vienna Institute of Cultural and Contemporary History and Arts (VICCA), initiated by Lydia Rathkolb, and Chairperson, Academic Committee, House of European History, Brussels.

Sybille Steinbacher - former Director of the Fritz Bauer Institute and Professor of the History and Impact of the Holocaust at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.

Moderator

Steven Van Hecke is a political scientist and Professor in European Politics at KU Leuven Public Governance Institute (Faculty of Social Sciences).

Actors

Seán McDonagh, born in Hamburg in 1982, studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg.

Sylvie Rohrer, born in Bern in 1968, attended the acting academy in Zurich.

CHAPTERS

Introduction by Constanze Itzel - 00:00
Reading of extracts by actors - 09:37
Discussion on "Dissatisfaction for democracy & loss of trust in institutions" - 26:41
Second reading of extracts by actors - 53:29
Discussion on "Strengthening European democracy" - 1:10:02
Final readings by actors - 1:31:09