Democracy and Autocracy in America Mini-Conference: Democracy and Exclusion

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Part of Mini-Conference

• Democracy and Autocracy in America

Session Description

How do we make sense of exclusion in the context of democratic politics? A contradiction? An
ambiguity? A necessity? While most would agree that exclusion poses one of the most serious
challenges to democratic legitimacy and stability, exclusionary delineations have also
contributed to maintaining a coherent sense of the self to be invoked for self-government. This
poses problems for both democratic theory and for the empirical study of democracy. What
modes of exclusion can democracy tolerate and what is the normative basis for making such
distinctions? How do we account for the fact that citizenship, a benchmark for democratic
inclusion, is not a stable category? And how might we engage with scholarship on identity and
belonging to better understand the dynamics of exclusion within the broader landscape of
democratic politics?

Sub Unit

• Division 44: Democracy and Autocracy

Chairs

• Lisa J. Disch University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

• Amel F. Ahmed University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Presenters

• Amel F. Ahmed University of Massachusetts, Amherst

• David Alexander Bateman Cornell University

• Danielle P. Clealand University of Texas at Austin

• Amaney Jamal Princeton University

• Joseph E. Lowndes University of Oregon