On Post-Democracy / Re-scaling Europe

The democratic euphoria after the upheavals of 1989 did not last long. Neo-liberal thinking argued that the state should increasingly withdraw, giving the free market an expanding role. Is the citizen still capable of defining what his interests are? Is a society based on equality still on the political agenda? Or are our democracies now no more than facades behind which a ‘post-democracy’ is taking shape? Two days after the Irish referendum on the European constitution, we shall be examining, among other things, the democratic deficit in today’s rescaled Europe.

Debaters
• Luuk van Middelaar (1973), is a Dutch political philosopher and historian. His publications include De passage naar Europa. Geschiedenis van een begin (2009), a pioneering history of European unification that gives a major significance to the turning point of 1989.
• Marko Stamenković (1977), Serbian art historian, critic and curator; works for Artists Space Gallery (New York), Guggenheim Collection (Venice), SKC Gallery (Belgrade) and others.
• Oleg Soulimenko, Russian performer and choreographer; worked with Meg Stuart a.o.; see Made in Russia, p. 4
• Anna Luyten, moderator, journalist.