Concepts of Democracy
An Experience of Collective Impotence

How do we deal with authority? Who is recognised as an authority? Andreas Urs Sommer, Philosopher from Freiburg, and Berlin based author Catherine Newmark discuss the understanding of democracy during the pandemic in Germany while boating through Berlin.

The video series On the Road to Change brings people in Los Angeles, Berlin, Athens and New Delhi into conversation about what democracies can learn from the pandemic.

In the second episode, Berlin based publicist and writer Catherine Newmark and Freiburg based philosopher Andreas Urs Sommer discuss the impact the pandemic has on ideas of social coherence, solidarity and concepts of democracy. Will the pandemic have an empowering effect on wide parts of the population? Or will people turn away from politics in general, disappointed and disgruntled by the endless debates and often paradoxical decisions? Will there be, in the long run, a stronger sense of solidarity, or will societies come out of the pandemic even more fragmented than before? Which system will prove to be stronger – populist governments, autocratic regimes or democratic societies with a strong and actively participating citizenship?

 

Interviewees

Catherine Newmark taught philosophy at the Freie Universität in Berlin until 2013 and is currently working as a journalist and publicist. Among other things she is an editor and presenter at the German National Culture Radio, Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Her most recent book was the essay Warum auf Autoritäten hören? in 2020.

Andreas Urs Sommer teaches as professor for philosophy and serves as executive director of the Nietzsche Research Centre at the University of Freiburg. Beyond his scholarly and academic work, he has published several philosophy books for a more general audience. In April 2022, his new book on the necessity of direct democracy in future will be released.