In-Person Author Meets Critics
Participants:
- (Chair) Suzanne Mettler, Cornell University
- (Presenter) Susan C. Stokes, University of Chicago
- (Presenter) Sheri Berman, Barnard College, Columbia University
- (Presenter) Matthew Rhodes-Purdy, Clemson University
- (Presenter) Jennifer McCoy, Georgia State University
- (Presenter) Murat Somer, Ozyegin University Istanbul
Session Description:
Book: Depolarizing Politics and Saving Democracy (Forthcoming, Princeton University Press)
Authors:
- Jennifer McCoy, Regent’s Professor of Political Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, and Nonresident Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Murat Somer, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Ozyegin University, Istanbul, and Senior Democracy and Development Fellow, Central European University, Budapest
The roundtable features leading scholars of democracy who will comment on a forthcoming book by Jennifer McCoy and Murat Somer, Depolarizing Politics and Saving Democracy. The discussants will reflect on the book’s findings and proposals for overcoming polarization and addressing democratic backsliding given their own expertise.
The book addresses the rise of pernicious polarization – the division of society into mutually antagonistic political camps — in democracies around the globe and the question of how to understand and address it. The book argues that problems of democracy and pernicious political polarization are closely interrelated. The solutions to pernicious polarization lie in democratic politics, democratic reforms and what the authors call democratic remaking.
The book posits that four fault lines of polarization are critical to address in contemporary cases of extreme political polarization: national identity and belonging; liberal versus majoritarian democracy; income and wealth inequality; and competing visions of the social contract. The book then presents two potential strategies, active depolarization and transformative repolarization, and five principles to address polarization: cross-cutting effect principle; inclusive incentives principle; non-pernicious incentives principle; positive-sum outlook principle; grounded politics and coalition-building principle. It draws on historical and contemporary experiences of a wide range of countries.
The book then addresses two crucial cases of pernicious polarization today – the backsliding wealthy, established democracy of the United States and the autocratizing electoral democracy of Turkey. It concludes with a review of the toolbox of strategies and interventions identified in the empirical chapters and the need for innovative solutions to remaining crucial challenges for today’s polarized democracies. the role of International and Comparative Political Economy in understanding and navigating the disrupted world.
-
View all 2025 APSA Annual Meeting Theme Panels or View all 2025 APSA Annual Meeting Pre-Conference Short Courses.
-
Browse the 2025 APSA Online Program