Ivan Krastev is invited by the Collège de France Assembly, at the suggestion of Profs Samantha Besson, Edith Heard, Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge and Thomas Römer.
This series of four lectures in English is part of the Collège de France's 2021-2022 Europe cycle, dedicated to the theme "The two Europes".
In a democracy, the rule is that citizens elect those who govern them. But, in practice, governments also tend to choose those who elect them. This choice is made not only through citizenship and electoral laws, but also through migration policies, gerrymandering and voting restrictions. The series of lectures presented here examines the ways in which the shrinking ethnocultural majorities in the member states of the European Union (EU) are attempting to preserve their power and identity in the face of their own demographic decline and the influx of migrants. The thesis defended is that the current conflict between liberalism and illiberalism in Europe is nothing other than the expression of rivalry between two idealized and opposing images of "the people" chosen by different governments. Liberalism expresses approval of a body politic that is inclusive and representative of the diversity of modern societies. Illiberalism relies on democratic majoritarianism to preserve the ethnic character of national democracies.
