The Future of Democracy Symposium

LINDSAY: Good evening, everyone. I’m Jim Lindsay, director of studies here at the Council on Foreign Relations. It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to the opening session of the Future of Democracy Symposium.

I’d like to begin by singling out the person who has made this evening possible. That’s Rita Hauser. Rita has been a longtime supporter of the Council, and this symposium is made possible by the generous backing of the Hauser Foundation. So I personally want to welcome Rita and her husband, Gustave, here tonight, and again thank them for the very generous support. So if you can join me. (Applause.)

We are very fortunate to have as our keynote speaker this evening Ambassador Thomas Shannon. Ambassador Shannon is currently senior international policy advisor at Arnold & Porter. From 2016 to 2018 he served as U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, and from 2010 to 2013 he was the U.S. ambassador to Brazil.

What I’m going to do is ask you to join me in welcoming Ambassador Shannon and our moderator, the impeccable Deb Amos of NPR, to come the stage. (Applause.)

AMOS: Good evening, everyone. I’m glad that we have dispensed with the...

ROSEN: So welcome, everyone, to this morning session on our first full day of the conference. We are here at the Council on Foreign Relations Symposium on the Future of Democracy. This session is entitled “The Global Democratic Recession”?

This symposium, I should note, is made possible by the generous support of the Hauser Foundation. Thank you so much.

I’m Gary Rosen. I edit the Weekend Review Section at the Wall Street Journal, and I will be trying to gather a view of the world from our experts here today. So we’ll talk for I think forty-five minutes or so amongst ourselves and then we’ll open it up for questions, so start thinking about what you want to ask our panelists here.

So we have a very distinguished group here circling the world with their expertise. We have Michelle Gavin at the far end, who’s a senior fellow for Africa studies here at the Council. We have Matthias Matthijs, who’s at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where he teaches international political economy. Shannon O’Neil, vice president and deputy director of studies, and also senior fellow for Latin American studies, here at the Council. And Dan Slater, who is...

BUSSEY: Well, welcome back, everybody. We’re going to—we’re going to get started. Welcome back from your coffee.

So our next panel is entitled “Economics, Identity, and the Democratic Recession.”? That’s what we’re here to discuss: Brad DeLong from Berkeley; John Judis has written on populism and nationalism; Catherine Rampell from the Washington Post, my hometown newspaper—what we refer to at the Wall Street Journal as Brand X—is also somebody who has written on this topic extensively.

So, Catherine, let me—let me start with you. So the U.S. has had, in its history, populist and nationalist moments. This is—appears to be one of them. What got us here? What were the forces that led to this particular episode?

RAMPELL: Well, obviously, there has been a lot of discussion of economic anxiety, so much so that it’s almost become a punch line. You know, whenever a journalist gets a racist email it’s, like, oh, there’s that economic anxiety at work again. But I will say that my views on the extent to which the economy and, particularly, the financial crisis have played into the rise of populism on both the left and the right is shaped by two things. One is more...

VAITHEESWARNAN: I want to just start first, I thought. There are multiple questions we can get into, and we will, but one of the interesting and important questions of the age—and not least because I just spent five years covering China, technology and business for my publication before returning here to the U.S.—is the rise of a splinternet and techno-authoritarianism. We do we see how technology and some of the newer tools are being used—are being applied rather than to liberate, but rather to suppress and entrench authoritarian governments.

I wanted to ask, maybe starting with Shanthi, can you give us a little bit of a picture of how you see the rise of techno-authoritarianism?

KALATHIL: Sure. So, you know, I’d start by situating it within the context of how we view the role of technology and democracy today. I think if you go back ten, fifteen years ago it was a very different picture, as you’ve alluded to. So, for instance, the information wants to be free trope, the Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace from John Perry Barlow in the late ’90s. And there was really a sense that technology and democracy just went together. And I think as...

GIACOMO: Welcome to today’s Council on Foreign Relations Symposium on the Future of Democracy. This session is entitled “Can Democracy Be Saved?” So we will be responsible for whether you leave here depressed or optimistic. (Laughter.)

I’m Carol Giacomo, a member of the New York Times Editorial Board and I’ll be presiding over today’s session. My panelists are Adriana LeBas, Tom Carothers, and Josh Kurlantzick.

So I’m going to ask the three panelists to first start out very shortly, very quickly, and succinctly, making their main pointed on this subject and then we’ll engage in discussion.

So, Josh?

KURLANTZICK: OK. Well, thanks everyone for joining and for sticking around for the last session. I hope we can offer you some suggestions.

I’m going to say two things, one of which is probably actually not that optimistic and then I’m going to talk about one success story last year. And I also want to say that I think there have been a lot of questions about China, so I’m happy to get into China in the question period, but I feel like it’s too much to get into all of these things right now.

First of all, I want to say...