This paper distinguishes between nomological and historical explanations of democracy. The former searches for the general conditions under which democracies emerge (modernization theory is the most accomplished example). The latter asks about the historical origins of democracy and its expansion. It is argued that representative democracy was born at the end of 18th century in the West because this was the region of the world with higher levels of individualism, assuming a tight affinity between the values of individualism and democracy (equality and freedom).

Dr Layli Uddin joined the School of Politics and IR at QMUL as Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, and Lecturer in Politics and International Relations of South Asia, in September 2021. She is a political and social historian of modern South Asia, bringing together interdisciplinary questions on religion, class and mass politics. Her research reconstructs subaltern political thought and movements in the context of decolonisation, state-formation and the Cold War. Her broader interests are in liberation theologies and subaltern geopolitics in the Global South.

*Historian and former RAI Visiting Fellow Tamson Pietsch will present and discuss her new book, _The Floating University_ (Chicago UP, forthcoming May 2023)*

Abstract

Next year the UN will hold a 'Summit of the Future' billed as "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enhance cooperation on critical challenges and to address gaps in global governance". This talk seeks to explore the challenges and opportunities ahead for the UN:

* Can multilateralism be strengthened at a time of geopolitical tension and North-South mistrust?
* What are the implications of China's increased engagement in a range of international institutions?

Environmental politics often asks for our renunciation - for example by reducing waste or driving less. These contemporary forms of asceticism may seem remote from traditional Christian forms, and yet, even religious renunciation has often had political significance. This talk asks about the political significance of asceticism, especially in the work of Henry David Thoreau and Thomas Merton. It argues that Thoreau's nineteenth-century retreat described in Walden was playing on more ancient monastic practices, and that Thomas Merton was an inheritor of this vision of ecological justice.

Sandwiches will be served from 12.40

This is part of the Balliol College Oliver Smithies Visiting Lecturer Seminar Series.