2017 Politics and Society Conference

The Department of International Relations, Political Science and Security Studies of the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania and the Alumni FSSU ULBS Association cordially invite you to the 2017 Politics & Society conference

Democracy and Governance in the 21^st Century

Topic description. The 21^st century brings in new approaches when dealing with the way democracy is conceived and practiced. On the one hand, broadening participation means new forms of political participation, as well as transforming the political regimes. Under the pressure of new categories of critical citizens, who now have a voice through means of mass communication, new media and various social media channels, the last dictatorships are now undermined. Protests have swept numerous countries and regions, leading to the collapse of authoritarian regimes in countries from the post-Soviet region or Northern Africa. Fearing contagion, some regimes managed to counteract this, consolidating their status of hybrid, incomplete, electoral democracies or even turned into fully authoritarian regimes, making a clear-cut pattern of distinctive trajectories of political regimes during transition.

On the other hand, democratic regimes are now under the pressure of citizens, who are mobilized by informal, opinion leaders or by more formal, political elites. Since democracy needs large public support, mass attitudes and individual and collective resources are now critical. With lighter constraint following the EU accession, it is by no means surprising that political elites in many countries in Central and Eastern Europe stated to overlook the previous political liberal consensus based on constitutionalism and good governance. Mobilizing unsatisfied citizens, populist elites turned against neutral institutions in an effort to dominate the public scene.

The growing complexity of political decision mechanisms in a globalized economy, where new communication patterns make citizens more aware about a large series of previously disregarded issues, put decision makers under pressure and tighter control. Governance is the new lens through which one has to imagine the intertwined interaction between citizens and elites, focusing on various types of hierarchies, market actors and networks of voluntary organizations. This new interaction, which occurs in the framework of a globalizing world, brings in new perspectives not only for national and international security, but for the global market, environment, communication, citizenship and culture.

The conference encourages this perspective and aims to emphasize diverse approaches pertaining to new challenges for representative democracy and governance, in the context of changing regulation patterns and interactions between social and political actors. The organizers encourage contributions, but do not limit them, related to the behaviour of governance actors and networks, to governance and risks associated to new communication strategies by new technological facilities, and not least to global, European and multi-level governance.

Conference tracks

Track 1. Political behaviour

Track 2. States and societies in global governance

Track 3. The governance of security

Track 4. Political institutions and democracy

Track 5. General session

Keynote speaker. Professor Mihaela MIROIU, Romanian political theorist, professor at the National School for Political and Administrative Studies

Submissions. Panel and paper proposals can be submitted via the on-line conference system available at conferences.ulbsibiu.ro/crissp. The language of the conference is English.