Democracy is often hailed as the most equitable form of government. Around the world, democracies are associated with fostering economic growth, improving public health, and delivering effective services. Nevertheless, within many democracies, corruption and undemocratic processes persist, blurring the line between democracy and autocracy. In an age of voter suppression, disinformation, and systemic inequalities, how should the international community address certain complexities and contradictions that are present in several democracies? Is there a way to address the growing global trend of democratic backsliding? The event will be followed by a Q&A session moderated by Sanford J. Ungar, director of the Free Speech Project, and Michael Scott, director of the Future of the Humanities Project.
This event is co-sponsored by the Free Speech Project (Georgetown University) and the Future of the Humanities Project (Georgetown University and Blackfriars Hall and Campion Hall, Oxford).
Photo courtesy of Flickr user G.S. Matthews
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Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, a Labour peer in the House of Lords, is a barrister and human rights campaigner. She is the author of On Liberty (2014), Of Women (2017), and Human Rights: The Case for the Defence (2024). From 2016 to 2020, she served as shadow attorney general for England and Wales. She is a bencher of Middle Temple, the chair of London’s Gate Theatre, and a visiting professor of practice at the London School of Economics.
Ronald Krotoszynski directs the Program in Constitutional Studies and Initiative for Civic Engagement at the University of Alabama School of Law. Previously, he served on the law faculty of Washington and Lee University and the law faculty of the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis. He clerked for the Honorable Frank M. Johnson Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and was an associate with Covington and Burling LLP.
Adrian Shahbaz, the vice president of research and analysis of Freedom House, oversees the organization’s portfolio of annual publications and special reports. These include Freedom House’s flagship study, “Freedom in the World,” the widely consulted annual reports “Freedom on the Net,” “Nations in Transit,” and new streams of work on transnational repression, China’s global influence, election integrity, and media freedom.
Lord William Wallace is the liberal democrat spokesperson for the cabinet office and constitutional issues in the House of Lords. He joined the Liberal Party as a student, fought five parliamentary elections, and led the party’s manifesto drafting for the 1979 and 1997 elections. In 1996, he was appointed to the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat spokesperson on foreign affairs and defense. Between 2010 and 2015 he was a Lords minister and whip, working in the foreign affairs committee and the cabinet office.