Challenges to democracies

As part of the research group on the topic “Normalizing the Far Right” at the University of Bielefeld (Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung, ZIF) a conference “Challenging democracies” was held on October 16-17, 2023. At the conference, we analysed the normalization of the far right ideas and movements that challenge key democratic principles such as equality, human rights, media independence and the rule of law. Mojca Pajnik and Birgit Sauer have analysed in the paper (together with Marlene Radl and Burce Celik) Structural Masculinism and Women’s Media Ownership: Normalizing Authoritarian Populism how the concentration of media ownership and its levers of structural masculinism create “opportunity structures” for the rise and endurance of authoritarian populism.