Events

The 2026 Annual Lecture of the CCC will be delivered by Professor Pippa Norris.

Pippa will be discussing the Cultural Roots of Democratic Backsliding.

The lecture is based on a forthcoming book to be published by Oxford University Press.

Threats of democratic backsliding have metastasised in America and around the globe. Historical narratives blame predatory strongmen and Authoritarian-Populist parties. Institutional explanations fault weak checks on executive aggrandisement. Performance accounts emphasise the incapacity of democratic governments to deliver peace and prosperity. Cultural theories highlight public support for democratic and authoritarian values. Debate continues about the most important drivers that fit diverse cases and how these components interact.

Part I of the book outlines these claims. Part II scrutinises new evidence for each account. Part III concludes that regimes are most likely to endure where formal constitutions are rooted in the informal norms and values of ordinary citizens. The conclusion highlights the implications for reversing processes of democratic backsliding.

A Warwick alumna, Pippa Norris is a comparative political scientist who has taught at Harvard for three decades. She is the Paul F. McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and Founding Director of the Electoral Integrity Project, Director of the Global Party Survey, Co-Director of the TrustGov Project, Co-Principal Investigator for Trust in European Democracies (TrueDem), and Vice-President of the World Values Survey.

Her research compares public opinion and elections, political institutions and cultures, gender politics, and political communications in many countries worldwide. She is ranked the 2nd most cited political scientist worldwide, according to Google scholar, and the 3rd political scientist ranked worldwide, according to Research.com. Major career honours include, amongst others, the Johan Skytte prize, IPSA's Karl Deutsch award, fellowship of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, APSA's Charles Merriam award, Warren E. Miller award, Samuel Eldersfeld award, and George H. Hallet award, EPOP's Sir David Butler award, and the PSA's Sir Isaiah Berlin award, as well as several book awards and honorary doctorates.

For further biographical details, see https://www.pippanorris.com/Link opens in a new window.

The lecture will begin at 2pm BST and run until approximately 3:30pm BST. The event will take place via an MS Teams town hall. The event will be chaired by CCC co-directors Dr Mara Malagodi and Dr David Vitale.

You can register for the event - and obtain the Teams link to connect - via the CCC's Eventbrite page here.