How (Authoritarian) Populism Works

In continuing our yearlong exploration of , the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry is proud to present a special lecture from Professor Wojciech Sadurski (University of Sydney Law School).

Over the last fifteen years or so, the world has watched in shock as populists swept to power in free elections. From Manila to Warsaw, Brasilia to Budapest, Delhi to Turkey, the populist tide has shattered illusions of an inexorable march to liberal democracy.

Eschewing simplistic notions of a unified global populism, Sadurski's lecture will unpack the diversity and plurality of populisms (in plural). It will highlight the variety of constitutional and extra-constitutional strategies that populists have used to undermine the institutional fabric of liberal democracy. Outlining the rise of populisms and their governing styles, Sadurski will focus on what populists in power do, rather than what they say. Confronting one of the most pressing concerns of international politics, this lecture will offer an up-to-date account of modern populisms and, significantly, consider what can be done to fight back.

About the Speakers

• Wojciech Sadurski is Challis Professor in Jurisprudence. He also holds a position of Professor in the Centre for Europe in the University of Warsaw, and was visiting professor at Yale Law School, NYU Law School, Rutgers University department of Politics, Fordham Law School, Cardozo Law School and Saint Louis University School of Law (all in the United States) as well as in University of Parma Faculty of Law and University of Trento Faculty of Law (both in Italy), and in National University of Singapore School of Law. He was Professor of Legal Theory and Philosophy of Law in the Department of Law, European University Institute in Florence (1999-2009), and served as Head of Department of Law at the EUI in 2003-2006. As a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (elected in 1990), Wojciech Sadurski is member of a number of supervisory or program boards, including the Institute of Public Affairs (Poland), Helsinki Foundation of Human Rights (Poland), and also of editorial/advisory boards, including the European Law Open, Internatiional Journal of Constititonal Lawand Law and Philosophy Library (Springer Scientific). Series editor of Legal Theory Series at Edward Elgar Publishers. In 2013, he initiated and has been leading the Myanmar Constitutional Reform Project. Member of the governing bodies of International Society of Public Law (ICON-S) and International Associaltion of Constitutional Law (IACL); since 2021, member of the Global Rule of Law Commission at European Public Law Organization (EPLO).

• Hubert Tworzecki (BA/MA University of British Columbia, PhD University of Toronto) is Associate Professor of Political Science at Emory University. His research interests include political parties, elections, and voting in new democracies, as well as political communication and its effects. He is the author of Parties and Politics in Post-1989 Poland (Westview Press,1996) and Learning to Choose: Electoral Politics in East-Central Europe (Stanford University Press, 2002). His teaching interests include comparative politics, Eastern European politics, political behavior and survey research methods.

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