Date/Time: Thursday, October 29, 2026 / 15:00-17:00 (CET)
Click here to register
Moderator
Professor Lane Kenworthy (Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Yankelovich Chair in Social Thought at the University of California, San Diego).
Speakers
“The 2026 Midterms in Comparative Perspective: Shifting Support for Trumpism and the Issues Reshaping the Electoral Landscape,” by Professor Sheri Berman (Professor at Department of Political Science, Barnard College, Columbia University).
“Explaining the Socialist Revival in the US,” by Professor Michael Kazin (Professor of History, Georgetown University).
“Democratic Resilience Amid Pernicious Political Polarization,” by Professor Jennifer McCoy (Regent’s Professor Emerita of Political Science, Georgia State University).
“Beyond Washington, DC: American Federalism and the Midterms,” by Professor Andrew Karch (Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota).
Click here to register!
Brief Biographies and Outlines
Lane Kenworthy is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Yankelovich Chair in Social Thought at the University of California, San Diego. He studies the causes and consequences of living standards, capabilities, poverty, inequality, mobility, employment, economic growth, social policy, taxation, public opinion, and politics in the United States and other wealthy, long-standing democracies. His books include The Good Society (thegoodsociety.net), Is Inequality the Problem? (2025), Would Democratic Socialism Be Better? (2022), Social Democratic Capitalism (2020), How Big Should Our Government Be? (2016), Social Democratic America (2014), Progress for the Poor (2011), Jobs with Equality (2008), Egalitarian Capitalism (2004), and In Search of National Economic Success (1995). More information on his research and teaching is available at lanekenworthy.net.
Professor Berman: “The 2026 Midterms in Comparative Perspective: Shifting Support for Trumpism and the Issues Reshaping the Electoral Landscape”
The presentation will focus on the issues dominating the midterm elections and the reasons why support for Trump and Trumpist candidates has been shifting. It will also briefly connect these developments to comparative cases, possibly including the April elections in Hungary.
Sheri Berman is a professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. Her research interests include European history and politics; the development of democracy; populism and fascism; and the history of the left. She has written about these topics for a wide variety of scholarly and non-scholarly publications, including the New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, and VOX. She currently serves on the boards of the Journal of Democracy and Political Science Quarterly. Her last book was Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancien Regime to the Present Day (Oxford University Press 2019). Her most recent book, The Political Consequences of Economic Ideas: Neoliberalism, the Left, and the Fate of Democracy is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Professor Kazin: “Explaining the Socialist Revival in the US”
Professor Michael Kazin will examine the roots of the contemporary socialist resurgence in the United States, tracing them back to the anti-globalization protests of the late 1990s and the Great Recession of 2008–2009, which helped create the conditions that encouraged Bernie Sanders to run in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries. Professor Kazin will then assess the achievements of contemporary socialists, particularly those affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), while also considering the limits of their political appeal and constituency.
Michael Kazin is a Professor in the Department of History, Georgetown University. He is an expert in US politics and social movements, 19th and 20th centuries. His most recent book is What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022) which was named an Editor’s Choice by the NY Times Book Review and one of the best ten books published on US history in 2022 by Kirkus Reviews. His previous book War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918 (Simon and Schuster, 2017) was also named an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times Book Review and was awarded the Elise M. Boulding Prize for the best book in peace history by the Peace History Society. His previous books include American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation (Knopf, 2011), which was named a Best Book of 2011 by The New Republic, Newsweek/Daily Beast, and The Progressive. Kazin is emeritus co-editor of "Dissent," a leading magazine of the American left since 1954.
Professor McCoy: “Democratic Resilience Amid Pernicious Political Polarization”
Professor Jennifer McCoy will examine how Americans are responding to extreme political polarization and contentious midterm elections. She will also consider how polarization may evolve after the midterms under different electoral outcomes.
Jennifer McCoy is Regent’s Professor Emerita of Political Science at Georgia State University and Nonresident Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as well as Senior Fellow at Cornell University’s Center on Democracy and a Research Affiliate at CEU’s Democracy Institute in Budapest. She was named a 2024 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, one of 28 scholars nationwide who explore political polarization as well as what might help tackle division and strengthen American democracy. A specialist on democratic erosion, recovery, and renewal; polarization and depolarization; mediation and conflict prevention; election processes and election observation; and Latin American politics, Professor McCoy has authored or edited six books and dozens of articles. Her forthcoming book is How to Depolarize: Remaking Global Democracies in the 21st Century, with Murat Somer, (Princeton University Press, May 2027). McCoy has been a visiting scholar at Koc University in Istanbul, Collegio Carlo Alberto in Turin, Italy, and both the Democracy Institute and the Institute of Advanced Studies at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. She was named a GSU Regent’s University Professor in 2023 (the highest honor bestowed by the University System of Georgia).
Professor Karch: “Beyond Washington, DC: American Federalism and the Midterms”
Professor Andrew Karch will examine the significance of the 2026 midterm elections beyond the national level. While most journalistic coverage focuses on partisan control of Congress, Professor Karch will emphasize that the stakes at the state level are also substantial. He will begin by reviewing recent trends in partisan control of state governments and discussing the state-level offices that will appear on the ballot. He will also highlight several significant ballot initiatives that voters in some states will consider.
The second part of Professor Karch’s presentation will examine the role of state governments at a moment of heightened partisan polarization. He will discuss how the Elections Clause of the US Constitution gives states a central role in administering elections, drawing congressional districts, and determining who is part of the American electorate. He will also examine how states have increasingly become sites of resistance, with state officials challenging national government policies and priorities. Professor Karch will argue that the significant impact of American federalism underscores the need to look beyond national-level results when assessing the midterm elections and their broader consequences.
Andrew Karch is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, where he has taught since 2010. His research centers on the political determinants of public policy choices in the contemporary United States, with a special focus on federalism and state politics. His most recent book, Responsive States: Federalism and American Public Policy, is co-authored with Shanna Rose of Claremont McKenna College and was published by Cambridge University Press in 2019. His previous book, Early Start: Preschool Politics in the United States (University of Michigan Press), was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2013. He is also the author of Democratic Laboratories: Policy Diffusion among the American States (University of Michigan Press, 2007). He is currently serving on the editorial boards of State Politics & Policy Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, and Publius: The Journal of Federalism. He is also a fellow of the Center for the Study of Federalism, and he previously served two terms as Chair of the Executive Council of the Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations Section of the APSA.
