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In
Connective Action and the Rise of the Far-Right: Platforms, Politics, and the Crisis of Democracy, the contributors explain democratic backsliding in the 21st century through what it terms a cross-disciplinary engagement between democracy scholars and data scientists. The former describe the necessary social and economic conditions for a healthy democracy, while the latter tell us something about the role of digital platforms in the realization (or not) of these same conditions. In turn, volume editors Steven Livingston and Michael Miller bring these two broad
research traditions together to define a new analytical framework for understanding the potential demise of contemporary democracy. The chapters argue that the current threat to democracy comes from the organization of illiberal movements, both on and offline. Put differently, democratic backsliding is the consequence of far-right connective action.
List of contents
- Foreword by Daniel Ziblatt
- Preface: Steven Livingston and Michael Miller
- Chapter 1: W. Lance Bennett and Steven Livingston
- Chapter 2: Kate Starbird
- Chapter 3: Josephine Lukito, Yunkang Yang, Sang Jung Kim
- Chapter 4: Daniel Kreiss and Aaron Sugarman
- Chapter 5: Curd Knüpfer and Ulrike Klinger
- Chapter 6: Julia R. DeCook and Brett J. Fujioka
- Chapter 7: Adam Hilton
- Chapter 8: Christopher Sebastian Parker and Rachel M. Blum
- Chapter 9: Steven Feldstein
- Chapter 10: Babak Bahador and Dan Kerchner
- Chapter 11: Andrew Ifedapo Thompson
- Chapter 12: Dave Karpf
About the author
Steven Livingston is Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University and the Founding Director of the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics (IDDP). He also holds an appointment in the Elliott School of International Affairs and is a senior fellow in the Illiberal Studies Program in the Elliott School. Livingston also founded the Public Diplomacy Institute (PDI) at GW in 2000 and served as the chairman of the Board of Directors until 2008. PDI is now the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication.
Michael Miller is Managing Director of the Moynihan Center at The City College of New York. A political scientist specializing in media, technology, and authoritarianism, his research examines how regimes adapt censorship, surveillance, and propaganda to digital environments. Before joining CCNY, he directed the Media & Democracy and Just Tech programs at the Social Science Research Council and served as founding editor of the Just Tech Platform. He holds a PhD in political science from the CUNY Graduate Center.
