The collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 ushered in an era of tremendous political optimism: Communism was receding and democracy was on the march in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and much of Asia. Even surviving communist regimes were adopting capitalism, and the stagflation of the 1970s and industrial strife of eh 1980s were in the rearview mirror.

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Four decades later, euphoria has given was to resentment and pessimism. Britain left the EU, Donald Trump's populist crusade gained him the White House not once but twice, and right-wing parties have gained power across Europe and other parts of the world on a scale not seen since the 1930s. What happened?

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Prof. Shapiro argues that the current crisis was far from inevitable. Politicians consistently made bad choices on topics ranting from NATO's future to the Global War on Terror to humanitarian intervention and the governance of their economies. In doing so, they fostered a crisis of confidence in political institutions, empowered antisystem parties and candidates, and produced a new Sold War as dangers as the last.

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By scrutinizing the roads not taken by politicians in the past, Prof. Shapiro will map out what better futures might still be possible.

 

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Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He has written widely and influentially on democracy, justice, and the methods of social inquiry. A native of South Africa, he received his J.D. from the Yale Law School and his Ph.D from the Yale Political Science Department where he has taught since 1984 and served as chair from 1999 to 2004.

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Shapiro also served as Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies from 2004-2019. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and a member of the Council on

Foreign Relations and the National Academy of Social Insurance. He is a past fellow of the Carnegie

Corporation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

He has held visiting appointments at the University of Cape Town, Keio University in Tokyo, and

Nuffield College, Oxford. 

 

His most recent books are  Politics Against Domination (Harvard University Press, 2016),  

Responsible Parties: Saving Democracy from Itself  (Yale University Press, 2018) with Frances Rosenbluth,

and The Wolf at the Door: The Menace of Economic Insecurity and how to Fight It  

(Harvard University Press, 2020) with Michael Graetz.

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This event is made possible with the generous support of the Yale Alumni Association Redpath Speakers 

Program.

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