Sources of Legitimacy: Rethinking US-American Democracy
Thursday, May 25, 2023 – Saturday, May 27, 2023JFK-Institute, Freie Universität
Join us at the JFK-Institute, Freie Universität for the Annual Conference of Political Science Section of German Association of American Studies! This year's theme is "Sources of Legitimacy: Rethinking US-American Democracy."
Legitimacy can be understood as a multi-dimensional concept, encompassing beliefs on the proper sources, values, goals, procedures, and outcomes of a given institutional order. Considering that both the domestic political order in the U.S. as well as the international order built around American hegemony have come under immense pressure, this conference will provide a forum to discuss the crises of legitimacy of relevant institutions, ideals, and actors.
This event is hosted by The Political Science Section of the German Association for American Studies, Atlantische Akademie Rheinland-Pfalz e.V., Freie Universität and Bard College Berlin. To register for this conference, please use this link.
Keynote Address: "Cold Peace: Avoiding the New Cold War" with Michael Doyle (Columbia University)
Thursday, May 25, 5:00-7:00 pm | Room 340, JFK Institute, Lansstraße 7-9, 14195 Berlin
Michael Doyle is university professor at Columbia University (NYC), specializing in international relations theory, international security, and international organizations.
Doyle previously served as assistant secretary-general and special adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan from 2001 to 2003. Doyle has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1992 and is the former chair of the Academic Council of the United Nations System. He has also been a vice president, senior fellow and a member (and chair) of the Board of Directors of the International Peace Institute between 1992 and 2018. He served as chair of the board of the UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF) from 2006–2013. In 2015, Doyle helped develop the Model International Mobility Convention which represents a shared framework among over 40 academics.
This open lecture is also part of the combined research colloquium of the Political Science & Sociology Departments of the JFK-I.
Program Schedule:
Thursday, May 25, 2023
2:30-3:00 pm: Introduction
Christian Lammert / David Sirakov / Boris Vormann / Sarah Wagner
Welcome and Introduction to the Conference
3:00-4:30 pm: Panel 1: Polarization and Anti-Government Sentiments
Chair: Boris Vormann
Claudia Franziska Brühwiler, University of St. Gallen
Beyond Trumpists and Claremonsters: Forging a Postliberal Consensus?
Marcel A. Bloch, University of Tuebingen
“No longer a Government of the People, for the People, and by the People – The Populists New Offer to Gilded Age America”
C. Kleinfeld, Universität Leipzig
The Anti-Woke Right
Stefanie Wallbraun, University of Heidelberg
The Insurrectionist Idea in Contemporary American Gun Culture
4:30-5:00 pm: Coffee break
5:00-6:30 pm: Keynote Address
Michael Doyle (Columbia University)
Friday, May 26, 2023
9:00-10:30 am: Panel 2: Inequality and Racism
Chair: Christian Lammert
Anthony J. Obst, GSNAS, FU Berlin
“Challenging the Legitimacy of Racialized Class Rule: Black Communist Critiques of American Democracy in the 1930s”
Shasha Lin, Heidelberg University
Institutional Trust and Policy Acceptance: Chinese Americans’ Perceptions of College Admissions and Attitudes toward Affirmative Action
Laura Kettel, Aarhus University
The Politics of Preemption: Determinants of Local Interventions in Housing Policy
Kexin Chen, JFKI, FU Berlin
Re-politicizing the Global Supply Chain: Inequality and Democratic Backsliding
10:30-11:00 am: Coffee break
11:00 am -12:30 pm: Public Interest Panel
Margit Mayer (JFKI Berlin) / Heike Paul (University of Erlangen-Nuremburg) / Michael Dreyer (University of Jena)
12:30-2:00 pm: Lunch break
2:00-3:30 pm: Session 3: Elections
Chair: David Sirakov
Rachel Blum, University of Oklahoma; Seth Masket, University of Denver; and Mike Cowburn, Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)
Who Decides? Media, MAGA, Money, and Mentions in the 2022 Republican Primaries
Julia Simon, Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg
The Long 2020 Election & the Effects of Epistemological Populism on the Local Level
Caroline Leicht, University of Southhampton
McKinnon for President – A Comparative Analysis of Gendered Framing in Election Coverage in Political Satire and Traditional News Media
Jörg Hebenstreit, University of Jena
“In Blockchain We Trust!” – Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) as a Remedy for Distrust in the Electoral Process?
3:30-4:00 pm: Coffee break
4:00-6:00 pm: Panel 4: Government Institutions and Separation of Powers
Chair: Laura Kettel
Maciej Turek, Jagiellonian University in Kraków
Doublethink? U.S. Congress and Impeachment Processes of Bill Clinton and Donald Trump
Alexander Brackebusch, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Transformed Conceptions of the Role and Legitimacy of the U.S. Presidency
Jakob Wiedekind, Leibnitz-University Hannover
Taking the last Stronghold? Analyzing Executive Pressure on Authorization Legislation in Foreign Policy
Tim Haas, Jena University
The Legitimacy of the Vice President in the US American Political System
Paweł Laidler, Jagiellonian University in Kraków
How Democratic and Legitimate is the U.S. Constitution in 2023?
Saturday, May 27, 2023
9:00-10:00 am: Business Meeting
10:00-11:30 am: Panel 5: Security and International Relations
Chair: Sarah Wagner
Holger Janusch, Hochschule des Bundes für öffentliche Verwaltung / Daniel Lorberg, Bergische Universität Wuppertal
Digitalization, Trumpismo, and the End of the Liberal World Order? Turning Points and Caesarism in Neo-Gramscianism
Carlos Álvarez-Marín, University of Guadalajara
A nation to be defended? Racism and border security in the US during the Donald J. Trump administration
Philipp Adorf, Bonn University
Affective Polarization, White racial Consciousness and America’s Future Foreign Policy: Are We Entering a new Isolationist Era?
Gordon M. Friedrichs, Freiburg University, and Florian Böller, TU Kaiserlautern
Does Anybody Care? How Domestic Polarization shapes U.S. International Relations
1:00 pm: Lunch snack and departures
Website: https://www.atlantische-akademie.de/gaas23