The Boston Warburg Chapter and the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University will host a panel discussion and reception with Benjamin Braun, Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute  for the Study of Societies, and John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow at Harvard University; Eva Marlene Hausteiner, Postdoctoral Lecturer and Researcher in Political Theory, University of Bonn, and John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow at Harvard University; Hanna Lierse, Postdoctoral Fellow, Jacobs University Bremen, and John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow at Harvard University; Eva Schliephake, Assistant Professor, Institute for Financial Economics and Statistics, University of Bonn, and John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow at Harvard University; and Thomas Weber, Professor of History and International Affairs and Director of the Center for Global Security and Governance at University of Aberdeen. The discussion will be moderated by Alexander Görlach, Founder, The European; Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and Senior Advisor at Berggruen Institute.
A light reception will follow the discussion. There will be no charge for this event. RSVPs are not required.
The recent electoral outcomes in Great Britain and the United States as well as prospects in France and the Netherlands seem to be influenced by the same script of right-wing populists, disrupting longstanding political conventions and power configurations. In the run-up to the parliamentary elections in Germany, the panel will discuss what lessons to draw from these events: Are the protest voters who supported Donald Trump similar to the supporters of the Alternative für Deutschland? What can we learn from voter disaffection and the increasing skepticism toward the political elites? What are promising strategies to revitalize democratic values, in Germany and beyond? By taking into account democratic developments in other countries and by bringing together political and economic arguments, the panel aims at putting the German elections in context and offering an outlook on what might happen in and after September 2017.