Bard College Berlin and Heinrich Böll Foundation Presents

Democracy In Danger: An Evening With Daniel Ziblatt

Across the West, especially in the United States, democracy is under pressure, even in danger. Norms are eroding, institutions are wavering, and processes once taken granted are now in question. In their place, cynicism and corruption are ascendant. President Donald Trump and his allies have spoken of various measures to secure voting in the U.S. this coming fall. Is that code language for undermining or manipulating them? In any case, American democracy appears to be in a moment of acute stress and threat—perhaps a parable and harbinger for processes soon to spread across the West.

In a public discussion, Daniel Ziblatt, among the premier scholars and chroniclers of democratic decline, will engage in a multifaceted conversation about the many challenges facing democracy. He will diagnose the most relevant forms of democratic backsliding and where the dangers to liberalism and pluralism are most acute. What has caused or given rise to these tendencies, and what gives them momentum? At the same time, the picture is not uniformly negative: in key moments some democratic institutions have proved resilient. What can we learn from the areas in which democracy has proven stronger or more durable, and can we replicate those patterns? Will a new form of democratic politics emerge as a result? Ziblatt, a renowned scholar and bestselling co-author of How Democracies Die and Tyranny of the Minority is a key voice to provide answers to some of these questions.

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This event is a continuation of a Bard College Berlin’s and the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s 2025 event series, “Writing Democracy: Stories, Ideas, and Arguments On and Off the Page.” The series brings prominent journalists and writers to a wider Berlin and German audience to discuss topics of civic and political interest in both Germany and the United States. Through the lens of writing, the series offers a broader exploration of democracy and democratic institutions in the transatlantic context: about politics and society in the U.S. and Europe, the lessons of history, the role for democratic values, and misconceptions on both sides of the Atlantic – all with the aim of strengthening transatlantic ties in a trying moment.

Daniel Ziblatt is the Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and Director of Harvard University's Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies. He also leads a research group on democracy and democratic erosion at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center in Germany. He is the co-author of the bestelling How Democracies Die—"the most important book of the Trump era," according to The Economist—and Tyranny of the Minority. His writing appears regularly in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Die Zeit, and other publications.

Joshua Yaffa is the Writer in Residence at Bard College Berlin. He is a contributing writer at The New Yorker and the author of Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia, which won the Orwell Prize in 2021.

For more information, e-mail [email protected].

Time: 7:00 pm CET/GMT+1

Location: Heinrich Böll Foundation (Schumannstraße 8, 10117 Berlin)

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