Universities and Democracy?
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The political and policy world in which universities operate is undergoing a transition, one that is reflective of a significant change in domestic politics and international relations: a populist turn inward among a key group of nation-states often led by demagogues and autocrats that includes China and Hong Kong, Turkey, Hungary, Russia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Within right-wing political ecosystems, universities, in effect, offer a canary in the coal mine—a window into the extent of civil liberties and the political environment and trajectory of nation-states. This presentation will explore some of the themes in John Aubrey Douglass’s recent book Neo-Nationalism and Universities (Johns Hopkins University Press, Open Access eBook) to help decipher the different national political environments and differing academic cultures that significantly shape the range of activities universities are able to engage in, including the promotion of democracy and, more generally, open and civil societies. The war in Ukraine and student and faculty led demonstrations in Russia and Iran add to the complexity of understanding the role of universities as leaders or followers, or intermediators, in the nations they are intended to serve.
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John Aubrey Douglass is Senior Research Fellow and Research Professor – Public Policy and Higher Education at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley. His most recent book is Neo-Nationalism and Universities: Populists, Autocrats, and the Future of Higher Education (Johns Hopkins University Press, an Open Access eBook). Other books include The New Flagship University: Changing the Paradigm from Global Ranking to National Relevancy (Palgrave Macmillan 2016), The Conditions for Admissions (Stanford Press 2007), and The California Idea and American Higher Education (Stanford University Press, 2007 and 2000). He is a Fellow at The New Institute (Hamburg) where he is working on the report The Role of Universities in Promoting Democracy.
