Democratic resilience is increasingly being tested by polarization, rising support for populist-authoritarian politicians, and institutional backsliding. Across liberal democracies, citizens’ trust in each other is eroding, as is their trust in democratic institutions, processes and politicians. How can that trust be rebuilt? And why have we made so little progress despite a tremendous amount of experimentation? This discussion will explore what role academia and civil society can play in answering this question and why it is essential that we connect evidence-based insights from science with the practice-based knowledge of civil society initiatives.

Petra Schleiter holds a DPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford and is Professor of Comparative Politics and a Fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford. Building on over 15 years of senior research and academic leadership experience, she leads the University of Oxford’s initiative to establish a Centre for Democratic Resilience. She is currently a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin.

Following Petra Schleiter’s talk, there will be a panel discussion, chaired by Dr. Rupert Graf Strachwitz, Senior Strategic Advisor to the Maecenata Foundation and Vice-Chairman of the German-British Society. Panelists will include:

• Friederike von Buenau, Secretary General, Association of German Foundations,
• Balazs Denes, Executive Director, Civil Liberties Union for Europe
• Dr. Linn Selle, former Chair, Europäische Bewegung Deutschland

The panel discussion will be followed by Q&A.

In order to be able to attend in person or online, please register here:

https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/f2w1x1

For any questions, please contact Mari Mittelhaus, mittelhaus@debrige.de,

T: +49 (0) 30 / 203 985 0