Shalini
Randeria

The talk focuses on the concept of soft authoritarianism, highlighting the blurring of the distinction between democracies and autocracies, as formally democratic means such as parliamentary majorities, laws, and regulations are increasingly being used to further illiberal, authoritarian ends in polities across the world. It delineates the contradictory logics of soft authoritarian discourses and practices, and also explores their affective aspect. Shalini Randeria argues that this kind of rule is characterised by repressive reproductive policies coupled with a majoritarian demographic imagination, fuelling resentment and exclusionary politics. Academic freedom and university autonomy are also casualties of soft authoritarianism, as is evident in countries such as Hungary and the USA. However, the talk concludes on an optimistic note, offering a preliminary analysis of student movements that successfully ended soft authoritarian rule in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. These movements are now striving to sustain the momentum for fundamental change.

Shalini Randeria is Rector Emerita at the Central European University (CEU) in Vienna, Deputy Chair of the Class of Social and Related Sciences at the Academia Europaea, and holds the Worlds of Contradiction (WOC) Excellence Chair at the University of Bremen. She has published widely in English and German on topics such as soft authoritarianism, academic freedom, the globalization of law, state, and policy; reproduction and gender, civil society and social movements; processes of juridification and justice-seeking by ordinary citizens as well as post-colonial theory. Among her recent publications are the edited volumes and special issues: Soft Authoritarianism, Special Issue of Global Society (in press); Kapitalismus im 21. Jahrhundert (2021); Forum on Seed Activism: Journal of Peasant Studies (2020); Social Science at the Crossroads (2019); Wenn Demokratien demokratisch untergehen (2019). Her podcast ‘Democracy in Question’, has over 120 episodes, and is currently in its 12th season.

Franziska Fay, Ferdiansyah Thajib, Ehler Voss, and Martin Zillinger

Funded by the interdisciplinary and collaborative research platform Worlds of Contradiction (WOC) at the University of Bremen, the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) Media of Cooperation at the University of Siegen, and the Global South Studies Center (GSSC) at the University of Cologne, in cooperation with ICI Berlin.

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