Friday, March 1 – 12PM ET
Nils Karlson – Reviving Classical Liberalism Against Populism
In his recent book by Nils Karlson explores the strategies used by left- and right-wing populists to make populism intelligible, recognizable, and contestable. It presents a synthesized explanatory model for how populists promote autocratization through the deliberate polarization of society. It traces the ideational roots of the core populist ideas and shows that these ideas form a collectivistic identity politics. Karlson argues that to fight back requires the revival of liberalism itself by defending and developing the liberal institutions, the liberal spirit, liberal narratives, and liberal statecraft.
Nils Karlson is the founding president and CEO of the Ratio institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He is an economist, a political scientist, and a professor at Linköping University, working in the fields of institutional economics, political theory, public choice, industrial relations, and constitutional political economy. Prior to founding Ratio he was the president of the City University of Stockholm. After postgraduate studies in economics at George Mason University and in political science at Uppsala University, he worked as a university lecturer, government advisor, and editorial writer. He has led numerous research projects and has published more than 25 books with Swedish and international academic publishers, as well as a large number of academic papers and book chapters.
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Friday, March 8 – 12PM ET
Kevin Vallier – Radical Religious Alternatives to Liberalism
According to a common narrative, the twentieth century spelled the end of faith-infused political movements. Their ideologies, like Catholic integralism, would soon be forgotten. Humans were finally learning to keep religion out of politics. Or were we? In the twenty-first century, nations as diverse as Russia, India, Poland, and Turkey have seen a revival of religious politics, and many religious movements in other countries have proved similarly resilient. A new generation of political theologians passionately reformulate ancient religious doctrines to revolutionize modern political life. They insist that states recognize the true religion, and they reject modern liberal ideals of universal religious freedom and church-state separation.
Kevin Vallier is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University. He is the author of four monographs, five edited volumes, and over fifty peer-reviewed book chapters and journal articles. His books include Liberal Politics and Public Faith: Beyond Separation (2014), Must Politics Be War? Restoring Our Trust in the Open Society (Oxford, 2019), and Trust in a Polarized Age (Oxford, 2020).