Democracy, interrupted? Authoritarian turns in the 21st century
Hosted by the Ralph Miliband Programme
In-person and online public event (LSE Campus, venue tbc to ticketholders)
Monday 17 Nov 2025 6.30pm - 8pm
Democracy seems to be giving way to new kind of authoritarianism, even in some of the countries were it was most well entrenched.
How do these new regimes differ from classical European fascism? What is their social basis of support? And what can be done to defend democracy?
Meet our speaker and chair
Brian Klaas (@brianklass) is Professor of Global Politics at University College London, an associate researcher at the University of Oxford, and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He was recently named one of the 25 “Top Thinkers” globally by Prospect Magazine. Klaas is the author of five books, including Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters and Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us.
Robin Archer teaches political sociology at LSE, and is the Director of the postgraduate programme in that subject. His first degree was in physics, mathematics and philosophy at Sydney University where he received the University Medal. A Commonwealth Scholarship enabled him to come to England to do a DPhil in politics at Balliol College, Oxford.
More about this event
The Ralph Miliband programme (@RMilibandLSE) is one of the LSE's most prestigious public lecture series, receiving attention not only at the LSE but across London, the UK, and globally. The programme was set up in 1996 thanks to a generous anonymous benefaction from a former PhD student inspired by 'Ralph Miliband's contribution to social thought'. He specified that the funds be used in memory of his friend and mentor 'to advance his spirit of free social inquiry' and the diversity of thought that has always been the hallmark of LSE.
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