SNES Spring Conference 2019
The Swedish Network for European Studies Spring Conference 2019 will take place at the Linnaeus University, campus Vaxjo, Sweden on 11-12 April 2019. This years theme: "DEMOCRACY AT THE CROSSROADS: EUROPEAN CHANGES AND CHALLENGES".
The conference organizer in 2019 is the SNES—Linnaeus University Department of Political Science. The SNES aims to promote research in political science focused on European politics and to support exchanges among researchers and doctoral students. SNES consists of eleven member departments at Uppsala University, Malmö University, Lund University, Linnaeus University, Karlstad University, Umeå University, Linköping University, Dalarna University, Stockholm University, University of Gothenburg and Södertörn University.
We are looking forward to welcoming you at Linnaeus University!
Democracy at the Crossroads: European Changes and Challenges
Conference Conveners:
Charlotte Silander
Brigitte Pircher
Martin Nilsson
Daniel Silander
A quarter-century ago, at the end of the Cold War, scholars in the social sciences proclaimed the triumph of democracy. During this time, Europe's common values such as democracy, human rights, freedom of the individual and the rule of law appeared to become universal and the only game in town. The prospects for a Europe without dividing lines seemed most promising. Today, the situation is dramatically different. Over the last decade, the previous global democratic upsurge has halted and turned into a global and European democratic recession. Democracy is currently under serious pressure and in retreat based on a possible reverse wave of authoritarianism and populism challenging the very foundations of the European integration and collaboration among the EU institutions. Over the last years, the European debate within the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament have become polarized, jeopardizing decision-making processes.
Europe and the EU today face serious political changes and challenges, placing democracy at the crossroads. Contemporary Europe faces the resurgence of authoritarian traits in Hungary, Poland and Turkey, fragile democracies in the Balkans and in Eastern Europe, the rise of right-wing, populist EU-skeptic and xenophobic parties in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Sweden, and consolidated autocracy in Europe's neighboring states such as Belarus and Russia and in the European partner states Armenia and Azerbaijan.
In addition, the global political landscape shows growing authoritarianism and intensified antidemocratic influences from powerful states like China, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. With weakened transatlantic ties between Europe and the US and an erosion of US democratic standards, the EU and European democracies are under severe challenges in their traditional ambition to promote and preserve a liberal democratic order. An enlarged democratic Europe and Europe as a normative power seem today more like a dream than a realistic goal.
The Swedish Network for European Studies in Political Science welcomes papers that focus on themes related to the notion of DEMOCRACY AT THE CROSSROADS: EUROPEAN CHANGES AND CHALLENGES for its 2019 Spring Conference in Växjö. The conference accepts theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions from different academic disciplines and also welcomes contributions from practitioners outside academia. We would like to see papers dealing with European politics from a broad perspective, including themes such as EU institutions, decision-making, policy areas, party politics and external relations etc.