{"id":20790,"date":"2020-11-02T11:01:26","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T16:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/?p=20790"},"modified":"2024-07-03T19:50:13","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T23:50:13","slug":"jennifer-evans-among-scholars-warning-of-democracys-potential-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/2020\/jennifer-evans-among-scholars-warning-of-democracys-potential-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer Evans Crafts Open Letter of Concern Signed by Scholars of Fascism, Authoritarianism, and Populism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Jennifer Evans Crafts Open Letter of Concern Signed by Scholars of Fascism, Authoritarianism, and Populism\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Jennifer Evans, together with the editorial board of the New Fascism Syllabus<\/a> project, crafted a letter of concern which garnered the signatures of over 150 scholars, warning of the need to strengthen democratic principles and institutions following the US Election. It has been covered in The Guardian<\/em> and the Washington Post<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excerpt from “Scholars warn of collapse of democracy as Trump v Biden election looms<\/a>” by Lois Beckett in The Guardian:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dozens of historians of fascism and authoritarianism have signed a letter warning that democracy \u201cis either withering or in full-scale collapse globally\u201d, and urging ordinary people to take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDemocracy is extremely fragile and potentially temporary, requiring vigilance and protection,\u201d the scholars wrote in the letter released on Sunday<\/a>. \u201cIt is not too late to turn the tide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 150 signatories, including professors and other scholars at universities across the globe, attested to the fragility of democracy worldwide \u201cirrespective of who wins the American presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether Donald J Trump is a fascist<\/a>, a post-fascist populist<\/a>, an autocrat<\/a> or just a bumbling opportunist, the danger to democracy did not arrive with his presidency and goes well beyond 3 November 2020,\u201d the scholars write, referring to election day on Tuesday, when Trump will face Joe Biden at the polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The historians warn, particularly in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, \u201cthe temptation to take refuge in a figure of arrogant strength is now greater than ever\u201d. They suggest citizens must be ready not only to defend democracy at the ballot box, but \u201cif necessary, also through non-violent protests in the streets\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jennifer<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the lesson, to not be complacent in moments like this,\u201d said Jennifer Evans<\/a>, a professor of German history at Carleton University in Canada and one of the lead organizers of the open letter. \u201cThis is a very dangerous time, and we all have a responsibility to prop up democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excerpt from “Ahead of election, experts on authoritarianism warn in joint letter of democracy\u2019s potential collapse<\/a>” by Meryl Kornfield in The Washington Post:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The group urges the public to protect science, journalism, the electoral process and pluralism, and denounce misinformation, political violence and greed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe need to turn away from the rule by entrenched elites and return to the rule of law,\u201d they write. \u201cWe must replace the politics of \u2018internal enemies\u2019 with a politics of adversaries in a healthy, Democratic marketplace of ideas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cBecause if we don\u2019t,\u201d the letter concludes, \u201cwe will indeed face dark days ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

You can read the full letter, “How to Keep the Lights On in Democracies: An Open Letter of Concern by Scholars of Authoritarianism<\/a>” online.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Evans, together with the editorial board of the New Fascism Syllabus project, crafted a letter of concern which garnered the signatures of over 150 scholars, warning of the need to strengthen democratic principles and institutions following the US Election. It has been covered in The Guardian and the Washington Post Excerpt from “Scholars warn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,1,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-news","category-publications"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"news-student"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20790"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20794,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20790\/revisions\/20794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}