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Tagged: Democracy

Populism in a Global Perspective: Who Needs Democracy?

By Katarina Ristić, Therese Mager, Constanze Blum and Man Zhang. The rise of populism in the “West” has prompted extensive academic research which often appears oblivious to populism’s historical origins and non-western genealogies. Focusing on populism as a threat to western democracies, much of the research on populism neglects variations and the different contexts within which populism operates in different world regions. In our seminar “Critically Engaging with Populism as a Global Phenomenon,” which we taught during the summer 2024 term for MA students enrolled in Global and European Studies at Leipzig University, we sought to offer broader insights into populism in a global perspective.

Copyright as a Rule of Law Challenge

By Viktoria Kraetzig. The copyright/free speech conflict is inherent in copyright law: copyright grants its owners a limited monopoly on a work, which is also a communication content. If third parties copy the work, they might infringe copyright while invoking their fundamental right of free speech. The conflict arises because free speech doctrine does not distinguish whether someone speaks with own or other people’s words, whether something has been said for the first, second or hundredth time: speaking is speaking. And so is copying.

Elections, Rule of Law and Democracy in Greece

By Taygeti Michalakea. In the 2023 elections, Greece’s ‘New Democracy’ party won a second term with 40.5% of the vote, while the opposition Syriza received only 17.8%. Smaller far-right parties also gained seats, raising concerns about the rule of law. Issues such as weakened independent institutions, lack of media freedom, widespread surveillance, and political interference in the judiciary are contributing to this decline. This text explores how these factors are undermining democracy and eroding fundamental freedoms in Greece.

What Kind of Academic Freedom and for Whom? Karl Jaspers’ Idea of the University

By Sandra Richter. The history of the university and the history of academic freedom are intertwined but not identical. In certain historical situations they have even differed radically – whether it be for political, economic, or administrative reasons, or because of personal failure.

Threats to Academic Freedom – Historical and Contemporary Remarks

An introduction to the TRAFO series “Academic Freedom” by Gisèle Sapiro, Amr Hamzawy, and Başak Tuğ. Academic freedom is under threat today in many places of the world and it is urgent to create spaces of collective reflection on a principle that is fundamental to all intellectual practice.