Conference: Democracy Under Pressure

Democracy Under Pressure: Conditions of the Authoritarian Turn Yesterday and Today

24-26 May 2027

The Conference at a Glance

The conference "Democracy Under Pressure: Conditions of the Authoritarian Turn Yesterday and Today" (WU Vienna, 24–26 May 2027) brings law and socioeconomics into an interdisciplinary conversation to examine the current rise of authoritarian tendencies around the world. It explores key threats to democratic governance and analyzes which socioeconomic, legal and institutional responses could strengthen democratic resilience. The conference addresses these issues in dialogue with four pivotal thinkers – Friedrich Hayek, Karl Polanyi, Hans Kelsen, and Carl Schmitt – whose influential yet antagonistic accounts of the proper economic and constitutional order still provide a highly relevant analytical framework for today’s challenges.

We welcome individual abstracts and complete panel proposals from scholars in law, socioeconomics, political economy, constitutional theory, political science, economic sociology, history and related research fields — at all career stages, and from all regions, including the Global South.

Keynotes by Katharina Pistor (Columbia University) and Quinn Slobodian (Boston University).

Abstract submission deadline: 15 October 2026.

This conference is free of charge. Please note that we cannot provide funding for participants.

See the call for papers now

Conference Chairs

• Verena Madner (Head of the Institute for Law and Governance, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, and Vice-President of the Austrian Constitutional Court)

• Stefan Mayr (Deputy Head of the Institute for Law and Governance, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business)

• Andreas Novy (Head of the Institute for Spatial and Social-Ecological Transformations, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, and President of the International Karl Polanyi Society)

Advisory Board

We are honored to count the following distinguished scholars among the members of our Advisory Board:

Brigitte Aulenbacher, Fred Block, Ulrich Brand, Richard Cockett, Dragana Damjanovic, Bruno De Conti, Jürgen Essletzbichler, Nancy Fraser, Sabine Frerichs, Robert Kuttner, Maria Markantonatou, Clara Mattei, Attila Melegh, Anne Sanders, Margaret Somers, Julia Steinberger, Claus Thomasberger, Teresa Weber, Fabio Wolkenstein.

Conference Contact

This conference is organized by the Institute for Law and Governance, the Institute for Spatial and Social-Ecological Transformations (ISSET) and the International Karl Polanyi Society (IKPS).

For questions regarding the conference, please contact democracy2027@wu.ac.at.