Populism has taken root almost everywhere in the West. It is crucial to understand how it has come about, where its antagonistic worldview, its nativism, its illiberalism and its anti-pluralism will take us, and how we should seek to fend off this threat to liberal democracy. In particular, what could liberal answers look like? The NOUS network had organized an interdisciplinary academic workshop concentrating on the following questions: How could one develop liberalism at the conceptual or institutional level given the twin challenges of populism? Does liberalism need to re-think its relationship to democracy? And what are the potential benefits and threats of the digital transformation to democratic governance in the future? The peer-reviewed contributions have been published in a collected volume under the title “Liberal Responses to Populism” at De Gruyter. It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111575643 .
(Project term 2022-2025)