Can Universities Save Democracy?

Dr. Henrike Hartmann, Head of Funding and member of the Executive Board of the Volkswagen Foundation welcomed the participants and said how pleased she was to see so many young students in the audience. She then opened the discussion by saying: "Universities are places of free thought and critical thinking. And they are of vital importance for democracy. We need such places for argumentative academic debate".

For example, at the Central European University (CEU). It was founded in 1991 by George Soros based on the concept of "open society" modelled by Karl Popper. In 2017, Victor Orban forced most CEU activities to relocate from Hungary. Völz: "Autocrats clearly assume a close connection between thriving universities and a flourishing, healthy democracy." We have to ask ourselves whether autocrats perceive something here that we have yet to realise? And to what extent is the crisis of confidence in universities been caused by the universities themselves? 

This particular finding was rejected by Ian McNeely, professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who in his role as Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education is also very familiar with the administrative situation: "There is no crisis of confidence in American universities," McNeely said. This is evident from the high number of applications. He left no room for misunderstanding in his political assessment, bluntly describing the Trump administration's attack as something between a tornado and a hurricane.

Till van Rahden highlighted the differences between the situations in Germany, Hungary, and the US. The historian is a specialist in German and European democratic history. He is currently a senior fellow at the Research College for the Humanities in Bad Homburg, which is part of the Goethe University Frankfurt.

Universities as vehicles for social mobility

Ian McNeely brought an interesting statistic into the discussion. In the United States, people with university degrees live eight years longer. The university has become a kind of "substitute welfare state," with advancement through university education in place of benefits such as universal health insurance or social security. "People have every right to complain about this – but universities are not to blame and should not have to pay the price," says McNeely. 

As university rector , Randeria always says in the controversial discussions surrounding Palestine: "A university stands for inclusion, it stands for diversity, it stands for plurality, it stands for tolerance. And that means it stands for certain values. And that has nothing to do with neutrality." 

What role can universities play?

Why is a discussion about saving democracy necessary? Till von Rahden explained that scientific, political, cultural, and social elites have long assumed that democracy, the rule of law and free and fair elections are a kind of perpetuum mobile. "Once established, it runs and runs like a VW Beetle. We now realise that this was a big mistake."

The historian recalled the former president of the University of Chicago, Robert Hutchins. Referring to the collapse of democracies in Europe in the 1920s and 30s, he said that the most important thing about a university was not research or teaching, but reflection. Universities could once again be places that shape democratic culture and virtues out of living intellectual traditions, unlike what is often practised today.

In this context, Till von Rahden criticised the downward spiral of university funding by the federal states. This has sparked competition for third-party funding. "This puts pressure on universities," says Rahden. As a result, they are no longer able to fulfil their role as places where democratic ways of life, virtues and democratic attitudes can be practised. The fact that today the majority of researchers find themselves in precarious employment aggravates the situation. 

Learning to deal with uncertainty

Shalini Randeria pointed to an aspect that receives little attention but is immensely important for social cohesion: the sociologist and anthropologist has observed that students are becoming increasingly unable to cope with uncertainty, especially since the Covid pandemic. "The university would be a good place to think about how we can give our students a sense of security so that they can better deal with emotional and intellectual uncertainty and ambivalence. The more we know, the more we know what we don't know. And we have to be able to live with that." 
Till von Rahden quoted systems theorist Niklas Luhmann: "People who engage in science do not enter safe territory, but unsafe territory." But it is precisely in this unsafe territory fraught with uncertainty that one learns to live with ambivalence and ambiguity. 

Ian McNeely concluded by urging universities to show a little humility. They should not style themselves as the place where democracy is implemented most perfectly. This only contributes to fuelling resentment – and prevents the barriers between universities and the rest of society from being broken down.