The Democracy Seminar relaunches with a renewed global mission: to connect scholars and democrats in confronting today’s mounting threats to democracy. In this new salvo, focused on the “truth” of the New Right, scholars examine how knowledge production and manipulation fuel the rise of illiberal movements in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and the United States—highlighting the urgent work needed to defend both democracy and truth.

Michael Weinman (Professor at Indiana University Bloomington) and Siobhan Kattago (Professor at the University of Tartu) discuss the relaunch of Democracy Seminar 3.0 and the founding of the European Democracy Institute as a space for critical reflection, debate, and transatlantic collaboration. Drawing on the intellectual legacies of Hannah Arendt and Fritz Stern, they examine contemporary authoritarianism, democratic backsliding, and the enduring relevance of thinking critically in times of crisis. Against the backdrop of shifting global power, it frames the renewed Democracy Seminar as a “third escape toward freedom”—an effort to sustain democratic imagination, accountability, and shared political responsibility.

Reflecting on the history of the Democracy Seminar, Jeffrey Goldfarb (Michael E. Gellert Professor of Sociology Emeritus at The New School for Social Research) traces its evolution from a semi-clandestine transnational network during the Cold War to its present role within the European Democracy Institute and the New School. The essay explores how decades of dialogue, disagreement, and collaboration shaped both the Seminar’s democratic commitments and Jeffrey Goldfarb's own intellectual work, reaffirming the importance of critical public thought in times of democratic crisis.

Through personal encounters in Poland, Israel, and the United States, Jeffrey Goldfarb (Michael E. Gellert Professor of Sociology Emeritus at The New School for Social Research) reflects on the power of small acts of repair in times of political violence and moral devastation. Drawing connections between historical memory, contemporary protest, and everyday gestures of solidarity, it argues that even fragile acts of care can sustain hope and ethical responsibility in dark times.

Berit Ebert (Professor at Bard College Berlin) and Boris Vormann (Professor at Bard College Berlin) discuss the foundation of the European Democracy Institute as a new co-host of the Democracy Seminar — as well as its role as a vital center for research, public debate, and educational initiatives on democracy in the 21st century.