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Building the Present at the Expense of the Future? Market Liberalization and the Future of Democracy

What are the implications of market liberalization for the future of democracy? The future consolidation or erosion of western democracies depends in part on the political perceptions, experiences, and participation of ordinary citizens. The goal of this mini-conference, then, is to offer an arena for the (re)appraisal of citizens’ political disaffection as it relates to market liberalization. In particular, this call for papers focuses on understanding democratic disaffection in terms of “democratic linkages”—defined as the various ways in which citizens are connected in a structural and durable way to their political system (Kitschelt and Wilkinson, 2007). This definition includes political trust, political support, loyalty, and formal and informal participation. Questions about the nature and quality of “democratic linkages” are of increasing importance. A central yet often overlooked factor in the literature is the role that economic policy plays in structuring these linkages. From this perspective, then, we are interested in how market liberalization creates and changes structural relationships between citizens and democratic political systems. In particular, we invite papers that aim to explain the evolution of democratic linkages as market liberalization outcomes. This call for papers is organized around three key panels: Neoliberalism and Market Liberalization, Supranationalization and Market Liberalization, and Norms of Market Exchange as Democratic Linkages.

Building the Present at the Expense of the Future? Market Liberalization and the Future of Democracy – Panel organised at the SASE Conference in New York 27/29 June 2019, Luis Vila-Henninger, Margherita Bussi, Claire Dupuy, Virginie Van Ingelgom