The Genealogy of Illiberalism

Guests featured in this episode:

 Renata Uitz, is the co-editor of  Handbook of Illiberalism, who has contributed two chapters to it as well. Renata is also professor of Comparative Constitutional Law at the Central European University, Vienna, as well as the co-director of its Democracy Institute in Budapest.

Helena Rosenblatt is a professor of history, French, and political theory at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York, and the author of both Liberal Values: Benjamin Constant and the Politics of Religion andThe Lost History of Liberalism: From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century. Helena has also submitted an article on “The History of Illiberalism” in the Routledge Handbook of Illiberalism (2022).

Glossary 

What was the Reign of Terror? 
(pg. 2 of the transcript or 00:7:58)

The Reign of Terror (June 1793 – July 1794) was a period in the French revolution characterized by brutal repression. The Terror originated with a centralized political regime that suspended most of the democratic achievements of the revolution, and intended to pursue the revolution on social matters. Its stated aim was to destroy internal enemies and conspirators and to chase the external enemies from French territory.The Terror as such started on September 5, 1793 and, as the Reign of Terror, lasted until the summer of 1794, taking the lives of anywhere between 18,000 to 40,000 people (estimates vary widely). Thousands would die by means of the guillotine, including many of the greatest lights of the revolution, like Georges Danton.. The deaths can be explained in part by the sense of emergency that gripped the revolutionary leadership as the country teetered on the brink of civil war. Source

Who was John Stuart Mill? 
(pg. 3 of the transcript or 00:12:19)

John Stuart Mill, an English philosopher, economist, and exponent of utilitarianism. He was prominent as a publicist in the reforming age of the 19th century, and remains of lasting interest as a logician and an ethical theorist.The influence that his works exercised upon contemporary English thought can scarcely be overestimated, nor can there be any doubt about the value of the liberal and inquiring spirit with which he handled the great questions of his time. Beyond that, however, there has been considerable difference of opinion about the enduring merits of his philosophy. Source

Who was Alexis de Tocqueville? 
(pg. 3 of the transcript or 00:12:27)

Alexis de Tocqueville, French sociologist, political scientist, historian, and politician, best known for Democracy in America (1835–40). Tocqueville traveled to the United States in 1831 to study its prisons and returned with a wealth of broader observations that he codified in “Democracy in America”, one of the most influential books of the 19th century. With its trenchant observations on equality and individualism, Tocqueville’s work remains a valuable explanation of America to Europeans and of Americans to themselves. Tocqueville’s works shaped 19th-century discussions of liberalism and equality, and were rediscovered in the 20th century as sociologists debated the causes and cures of tyranny. Source

What does cancel culture mean? 
(pg. 6 of the transcript or 00:32:27)

Cancel culture refers to the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. Cancel culture is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming. Source

Democracy in Question?  is brought to you by:

• Central European University: CEU

• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD

• The Podcast Company: Novel