Democracy vs. Authoritarianism: A Crossroads for the 21st Century

According to a 2024 Pew Research Poll 32% of Americans believe that “rule by a strong leader or the military would be a good way of governing their country.” This corresponds with a 20-year decline in the civil liberties and human rights protections of citizens in countries with democratic institutions as reported by Freedom House in 2024. These reports suggest we are at a crossroads between two systems: liberal democracy, promoted by the United States and its Western allies as the ideal form of government since the end of World War II; and authoritarianism, a form of government with a long pedigree and a bloody history in the twentieth century. But is the relationship between these systems a simple dialectic, or do democracy and dictatorship share a more complicated connection? Join Max Owre as he reviews the themes that will animate a new course to be offered at UNC-CH in…