Johan Skytte Prize Lecture 2025: Democracy in Hard Times

Name: Johan Skytte Prize Lecture 2025: Democracy in Hard Times
Start: 2025-10-03T14:15:00+02:00
End: 2025-10-03T16:30:00+02:00
Location: Östra Ågatan 19, SE-753 41 Uppsala, Sverige

Schedule

Fri Oct 03 2025 at 02:15 pm to 04:30 pm

UTC+02:00

Location

Östra Ågatan 19, SE-753 41 Uppsala, Sverige | Uppsala, UP

The 2025 Skytte Prize laureate Herbert Kitschelt, George V. Allen Distinguished Professor of International Relations at Duke University, will hold a livestreamed prize winner’s lecture in the Brusewitz Hall, Department of Government, Östra Ågatan 19.
The event will be moderated by Li Bennich-Björkman, Johan Skytte Professor of Eloquence and Political Science and Chair of the Prize Committee, who will be present in the Brusewitz Hall. The prize lecture will last approximately one and a half hours, and there will be opportunities for the audience to ask questions to Herbert Kitschelt.
After the lecture, there will be a reception in connection with the unveiling of Herbert Kitschelt's portrait, which will be placed on the Skytte Prize winners' ‘wall of fame’.
The lecture is open to the public, and free of charge. Attendees are expected to arrive 15 minutes prior to the event.
The Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science is regarded as one of the most prestigious awards in political science research internationally. Previous laureates include Elinor Ostrom, Robert Dahl, and Jürgen Habermas. Herbert Kitschelt is awarded the prize for " having increased knowledge of the functioning of democratic party systems with exquisite theoretical acuity and impressive empirical breadth and depth."
Democracy in Hard Times
Scholars broadly agree that electoral alignments in competitive party democracies have shifted from the industrial societies of the 20th century to the knowledge societies of the early 21st. Socioeconomic and sociocultural change supplemented and softened—though did not replace—distributive economic conflict by introducing a second dimension of party competition. This new axis has centered on conflicts over societal governance and citizenship: the scope for individual expression and lifestyle diversity, coupled with demands for collective goods provision, voluntary association, bottom-up participation in decision-making, and multiculturalization driven by immigration.
Yet this once-dominant pattern of competition in Western democracies has come under mounting strain in the new millennium. Intensifying distributive conflicts are sharpening divides between winners and losers, fragmenting the coalitions that underpinned knowledge society alignments. These pressures stem not from a single source but from a constellation of interrelated developments—technological, occupational, demographic, climatic, civil-liberties, and national-security related—each with domestic and international aspects. Politicians and intellectuals often lack innovative solutions, and where solutions seem straightforward, they are blocked by political deadlock. Together, these dynamics have heightened uncertainty about citizens’ future quality of life while eroding trust in social and political institutions, even in the most affluent democracies.
This interplay of exacerbating and mutually reinforcing conflicts is mediated by distinct socioeconomic and institutional contexts across countries and regions, opening multiple trajectories for political change. Even if democracies can stave off extreme outcomes—such as democratic backsliding into electoral authoritarianism under populist rule—they still face profound challenges. Understanding these transformations may require political scientists to develop new analytical concepts, theories, and empirical strategies attuned to the emerging realities of democratic governance.
Herbert Kitschelt, Duke University. Johan Skytte Prize 2025
The Johan Skytte Prize
The prize is awarded annually by the Johan Skytte Foundation to the person or persons who have made "the most significant contributions" in political science. This year marks the 30th anniversary since the first prize was awarded.
It consists of a prize amount of 500,000 SEK and a silver medal, both of which are funded by the 1622 donation which Chancellor Johan Skytte made to serve as the basis for a Professor Chari in Eloquence and Political Science at Uppsala University.