CSLS Speaker Series: Democracies in America: Understanding Conflicting Democratic Attitudes

Featuring Amel Ahmed, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

Cosponsored with the Center for Research on Social Change

Recent scholarship has warned that the American public is turning away from democracy. Building on work that has shown signs of backsliding in the U.S., a number of studies have demonstrated that, particularly in a context of heightened polarization, democratic commitments may become conditional. These studies, however, tend to take a “top down” approach, which assumes a common understanding of democracy. While useful for measuring the proximity of public attitudes to scholarly definitions, such approaches do not take into account the possibility of genuine democratic contention; that is, disagreement on what democracy is and should be. In contrast, this study will pursue a ground-up examination of public attitudes toward democracy in the U.S., seeking to understand the question from the perspective of ordinary citizens. Using ordinary language interviewing, a semi-structured interview method meant to get at the meaning of concepts through their usage, the study aims to probe the landscape of democracies in America. This talk will introduce findings from a pilot study currently being conducted in Massachusetts, to be replicated subsequently in other locales.

Reception: Lunch 12:15-12:45p.m. in the Kadish Library 
Program: 12:45-2:00p.m. in the Philip Selznick Seminar Room

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If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) to fully participate in this event, please contact csls@law.berkeley.edu with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days in advance of the event.