USA: Hysterie und Vernunft – Georg Diez befragt Lora Anne Viola

In the organizer's words:

How much nervousness can democracy tolerate? Where do these tensions come from? How is our concept of democracy currently changing? Which forms of democracy do we need to preserve, which do we need to unlearn and relearn? And where will we be in five years' time?

The journalist and author Georg Diez will be talking to SCRIPTS researchers on three evenings in the Short Talk about the state and future of "nervous democracy": about the transformation shock of democracy after 1989, about the tension between hysteria and reason using the example of the USA and about the politics of unrest, protest and revolt as essential elements of a living democracy.

Democracy is the political form of rationality - is that true? What happens when irrationality gains the upper hand? Will it then be enough to pit reason against hysteria? In times of hyper-nervousness, democracy must reinvent itself. We look back at the US election and at the historical and current contradictions of American democracy - as a pars pro toto of democratic theory and lived practice.

In an interview with journalist Georg Diez, US political scientist Lora Anne Viol a answers questions about the fine line between political reason and hysteria using the USA as a case study.

Lora Anne Viola is an American political scientist and Professor of North American Foreign Policy at the John F. Kennedy Institute at Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses on international institutions and global order, often with a particular focus on US hegemonic power. Her book The Closure of the International System, published in 2021, has won several awards. As Principal Investigator at the Cluster of Excellence Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS), she conducts research on multilateralism and racism, among other topics.

Georg Diez is an author, journalist and curator and has worked as a cultural critic and political editor for relevant German media, including Spiegel Online, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. His books deal with the social shift to the right and tensions, technology and opportunities for democracy. Diez was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, editor-in-chief at the New Institute and curator of the exhibition Survival in the 21st Century. He is currently a fellow at ProjectTogether and the Max Planck Society, where he works on questions of democratic innovation.

An event in cooperation with the Cluster of Excellence Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS).

- free of charge

- Please book your ticket in advance online or at the box office in the foyer.

- from 14 years

- Language: German

- Humboldt Lab, 1st floor

- Part of: SCRIPTS Short Talks

- Belongs to: After nature