Addressing the challenges facing democracy today
Raghu Rai. Local commuters at Church Gate railway station. Mumbai. 1995
Around the world, democracies confront serious challenges, old and new.
These range from enduring challenges, such as enhancing civic participation, political representation and democratic accountability, to confronting the ramifications of digital technologies, rising social inequalities and shifting power relations in the evolving international order. The Jarislowsky Democracy Chair pursues critical research and collaborative partnerships that advance public understanding and explore practical innovations to meet these imperatives.
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What’s New
15 October 2026
We are living through a rupture in the liberal international order, in which the United States—the order’s main architect and Canada’s most trusted post-war ally—is increasingly going rogue. Never has the need to diversify our international relationships been more urgent, but doing so often means getting closer to countries where democracy and human rights are eroding or even absent.
This year’s Stanfield Conversation On Democracy explores some of the dilemmas that come with building these new partnerships, focusing on the challenges and opportunities of deepening relations with Asia’s two rising great powers – China and India.
The 2026 Stanfield Conversation explores democracy and diversification in a post-liberal world
21 October 2026
How can we stay in relationships with people with whom we disagree in polarized times? Friendship is a private comfort. But it is also political work–the daily, unglamorous business of talking with people whose views unsettle us and whose reasoning we may never fully understand. What can the friendships sustained by the famous philosopher Hannah Arendt— including with people whose politics she found troubling—teach us about sustaining democracy today?