(Dis-)trusting Civic Institutions Across Generations

Insights from the United States and Germany

Speaker: Frank Reichert, DAAD/AGI Research Fellow
Moderator: Eric Langenbacher, Senior Fellow and Director of the Society, Culture, & Politics Program, AGI

As Europe and the United States confront a surge of illiberal populism and the erosion of democratic principles, the concept of democratic resilience has emerged as a significant subject of academic scrutiny. An expanding body of research indicates that in addition to the institutional framework and legal design (structural and systemic setup), democratic resilience also hinges on underlying values and norms. This actor-oriented paradigm, which examines political culture, intermediate institutions such as the media or organized interest groups, and citizen attitudes, provides a more nuanced understanding of why certain democratic regimes are more capable of withstanding assaults on democratic institutions or enduring prolonged autocratic periods than others. This presentation will first discuss various theoretical perspectives on democratic resilience. Subsequently, applying the analytical framework of four levels of democratic resilience proposed by Lührmann and Merkel, it will concentrate on selected examples from the United States as a case study to illustrate how democratic resilience works in practice. Finally, it will also compare these findings with Germany in pursuit of identifying similarities and differences between the two nations.

Frank Reichert is a professor at the University of Hong Kong and an affiliate of the Research Center for Inclusive Citizenship at the Leibniz University of Hannover in Germany. He has published widely on citizenship norms, civic education, digital citizenship, and youth civic development and currently co-chairs the Standing Group on Citizenship of the European Consortium for Political Research. He previously worked at universities and research institutions in Germany and Australia and held several prestigious fellowships, including a Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship from the U.S. National Academy of Education. As an international expert, he currently contributes to the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2027 of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). He also co-developed a comprehensive digital competence assessment instrument and was commissioned by UNESCO to prepare a background report for the 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report.

This session will covene via Zoom. Please contact AGI Program Coordinator Mr. Jack Fornasiero at jfornasiero@aicgs.org with any questions.

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This event is supported by the DAAD with funds from the Federal Foreign Office.