Merkur-Gespräch #10: A Crisis of Representative Democracy?

Increasing alienation between citizens and political elites, declining voter participation, growing mistrust of the EU and the strengthening of populist movements: Are these the signs of a crisis of representative democracy? A conversation with the former constitutional judge Gertrude Lübbe-Wolff and the political scientist Philip Manow

Gertrude Lübbe-Wolff has been professor of public law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bielefeld since 1992. In 2000, Lübbe-Wolff was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize by the German Research Foundation, the most important research award in Germany. She was a judge at the Federal Constitutional Court from 2002 until 2014. Most recent publication: Das Dilemma des Rechts: Über Strenge, Milde und Fortschritt im Recht (2017)

Philip Manow has been a professor at the Institute for Political Science of the University of Bremen since 2010. In 2014, he launched the project Things and Places of Democracy at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin, which examines the tangible side of politics, such as the ballot box, parliamentary protocol, the no-protest zone, the big screen at the party congress, etc., from an empirical, cultural science point of view. Most recent publication: Die zentralen Nebensächlichkeiten der Demokratie. Von Applausminuten, Föhnfrisuren und Zehnpunkteplänen (2017)

The conversation will be moderated by Christian Demand (Merkur editor).

In cooperation with Merkur – Deutsche Zeitschrift für europäisches Denken