WELCOME


This conference will bring together an interdisciplinary group of leading scholars to discuss European democratization. Starting from the premise that there is currently a third generation of democratization studies, the papers move away from earlier explanations that tended to focus nearly exclusively on "class" and socio-economic change as the driving force behind democratization. Instead, the presenters will emphasize factors such as religion, ethnicity, and the transnational diffusion of ideas as crucial. In addition to the broader theoretical lessons for debates in the social sciences about the causes of democratization, the conference also aims to invigorate these debates a greater appreciation of historical lessons drawn from Europe.