The 2025 Johan Skytte Lecture by Herbert Kitschelt : Democracy in Hard Times

On October 3 at 14:15 the 2025 Skytte Prize laureate Herbert Kitschelt, George V. Allen Distinguished Professor of International Relations at Duke University will hold his prize winner’s lecture ‘Democracy in Hard Times’. The event takes place at the Department of Government, in Brusewitzsalen, Östra Ågatan 19, Uppsala.

The event will be moderated by Li Bennich-Björkman, Johan Skytte Professor in Eloquence and Political Science and Chair of the Prize Committee, with Herbert Kitschelt participating digitally. Following the lecture, attendees will have the opportunity to pose questions to the winner. After the lecture which will last approximately one and a half hours, there will be a mingle where the winner’s portrait will be uncovered at the winner’s "wall of fame".

The lecture is open to the public, and free of charge. Attendees are expected to arrive 15 minutes prior to the event.

About the lecture

Scholars broadly agree that electoral alignments in competitive party democracies have shifted from the industrial societies of the 20th century to the knowledge societies of the early 21st. Socioeconomic and sociocultural change supplemented and softened—though did not replace—distributive economic conflict by introducing a second dimension of party competition. This new axis has centered on conflicts over societal governance and citizenship: the scope for individual expression and lifestyle diversity, coupled with demands for collective goods provision, voluntary association, bottom-up participation in decision-making, and multiculturalization driven by immigration.

Yet this once-dominant pattern of competition in Western democracies has come under mounting strain in the new millennium. Intensifying distributive conflicts are sharpening divides between winners and losers, fragmenting the coalitions that underpinned knowledge society alignments. These pressures stem not from a single source but from a constellation of interrelated developments—technological, occupational, demographic, climatic, civil-liberties, and national-security related—each with domestic and international aspects. Politicians and intellectuals often lack innovative solutions, and where solutions seem straightforward, they are blocked by political deadlock. Together, these dynamics have heightened uncertainty about citizens’ future quality of life while eroding trust in social and political institutions, even in the most affluent democracies.

This interplay of exacerbating and mutually reinforcing conflicts is mediated by distinct socioeconomic and institutional contexts across countries and regions, opening multiple trajectories for political change. Even if democracies can stave off extreme outcomes—such as democratic backsliding into electoral authoritarianism under populist rule—they still face profound challenges. Understanding these transformations may require political scientists to develop new analytical concepts, theories, and empirical strategies attuned to the emerging realities of democratic governance.