Democracies Under Pressure – Causes and Strategic Responses from a Global Perspective

Democracies around the globe are under pressure. Authoritarian tendencies, social inequality, disinformation, and geopolitical tensions increasingly endanger the foundations of free societies. In this situation, a joint effort is required to understand the underlying causes of these developments – and to keep spaces for education, participation, and responsibility open.

Under the title “Democracies Under Pressure – Causes and Strategic Responses from a Global Perspective,” KAAD gathered approximately 250 current scholars and alumni from 45 countries in Bonn from 22 to 25 May 2025. The goal was to collectively explore the tensions, conflicting goals, and responsibilities involved in shaping democratic systems – across disciplines, faith traditions, and based on concrete experience.

In the days leading up to the Convention, KAAD’s thematic working groups met for internal colloquia. These groups work throughout the year on socially relevant issues and used the meeting as part of the Convention to take a joint and interdisciplinary approach to this year's leading theme.

In the colloquium of the “Global Health” working group, discussions focused on how access to healthcare is shaped by the tension between universality and structural inequality. The “Peace and Justice” group asked how participants in their respective contexts contribute to peace-building practices and structures. A workshop held by the “Water” group linked questions of global resource justice with concrete analyses of water privatization and civic participation. The “Religion in Dialogue” group explored the interrelations between religion and ecology, nationalism, and higher education. The “Language” working group held a participatory session under the key question “Who is allowed to speak – and who is heard?” creating spaces for critical analysis and self-reflection.

In his welcome address at the opening of the Annual Convention, KAAD President Fr Dr Hans Langendörfer SJ emphasized the importance of biographically based experiential knowledge. It is this form of knowledge – “what people have experienced, endured, reflected upon – and what they stand for” – that enables a particular depth of engagement with political and social processes. Democracy, said Fr Langendörfer, does not begin as a theoretical concept, but in everyday life – where it is threatened, challenged, and lived.

Dr Nora Kalbarczyk, Secretary General of KAAD, described democracy as a conflictual, contradictory, and vulnerable practice. In this context, education must achieve more than mere qualification: it should create spaces for participation, recognition, and responsibility. Especially within KAAD’s international network, educational processes should be designed not only to address democratic action, but to enable it.

The subsequent opening lectures took up the impulses previously set and continued them from theoretical and global perspectives. Prof Dr Tanja A. Börzel, Professor of Political Science, Head of the Center for European Integration at the Otto Suhr Institute of the Free University of Berlin, and spokesperson of the Cluster of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script” (SCRIPTS), addressed the causes and consequences of the erosion of liberal-democratic orders in her lecture “Democracy under Pressure: Causes and Consequences.” She referred to the growing tension between normative ideals and their erosion under conditions of social polarization, authoritarian mobilization, and global power shifts. She argued that resilience should not be understood as a static state, but as the result of learning institutions capable of productively processing crises and renewing democratic structures: “Democratic resilience is not shown by the absence of crises, but in the ability to deal productively with profound conflicts.”

Dr Ana María Bonet, legal scholar and researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and at the Catholic University of Santa Fe (Argentina), contributed the perspectives of the Global South. She emphasized that the current crisis is not only brought to democracies from the outside, but lies in their own logics of exclusion: “The inability to recognize the Other may be the deeper crisis of democracy.” With her relational, context-based understanding of democracy, Ana María Bonet advocated for plural, life-oriented, and participatory forms of democratic practice.

On Friday morning, the central questions of the Annual Convention were explored in greater depth in five specialist forums. Interdisciplinary panels and dialogue formats made visible how diverse and context-dependent the pressure on democratic orders is around the world.

In the forum “Lack of Representativeness? Democratic Institutions and the Rise of Populist Movements,” Prof Dr Wolfgang Muno (University of Rostock) and KAAD doctoral scholar Aye Aye Htun (University of Erfurt) discussed how democratic legitimacy can be defended where it is challenged by polarization, social inequality, and populist rhetoric.

The second forum focused on the relationship between religion and democracy. Dr Thomas Arnold, among other roles an advisor to the German Bishops’ Conference, and KAAD alumna Dr Locardia Shayamunda (University of Zimbabwe) spoke about ecclesial action in the tension between political responsibility and theological ethics.
The role of the media in democratic public spheres was discussed in the forum “A Threatened Fourth Estate?” Leonie Krzistetzko and Kristina Beckmann (TU Dortmund) as well as Prof Dr Viktor Khroul (Catholic University Ružomberok) addressed journalistic responsibility, state influence, and the dynamics of disinformation.

Historical depth of analysis characterized the forum “Democracy and Colonialism.” Dr Jörg Lüer and Dr Norman Mukasa (German Commission for Justice and Peace) demonstrated how historically grown inequalities continue to shape political spaces for negotiation and what challenges especially young democracies face.

The forum “Shrinking Spaces” addressed spaces for civil society action. Dr Lena Gutheil (German Institute of Development and Sustainability) and KAAD scholar Zau Tu (Asia Justice and Rights, Myanmar) reported from their regional contexts and discussed potential for cooperation and structural limits of civil society influence.
In the afternoon, the participants came together under the title “Democracies Under Pressure – Outlets for Freedom” in a bar camp format. In doing so, various perspectives on current challenges of democratic practice became visible. At the centre of this collective reflection were, among other things, the influence of journalism and social media, postcolonial power structures, dynamics of migration, inclusion and minority rights, the rise of authoritarian movements, and the role of international organisations. Through the sharing of personal experiences, academic perspectives, and professional knowledge, a critical and open dialogue at eye level emerged.

Friday evening was dedicated to expressing gratitude to long-standing companions of KAAD. Institutional commitment and personal connectedness were expressed in the musically framed ceremony.

The Bene Merenti Medal was awarded to Prof Dr Claudia Stockinger and Prof Dr Herwig Stopfkuchen. Claudia Stockinger was a member of the KAAD Academic Committee from 2009 to 2024, while Herwig Stopfkuchen served for twenty years as a liaison lecturer supporting our scholars with great personal dedication.

KAAD alumnus Prof Dr Helmuth Mauricio Gallego Sánchez (Colombia) was also awarded the Bene Merenti Medal. His professional work combines legal expertise with entrepreneurial and socio-ecological engagement – including projects on the conversion of landfills and the protection of Indigenous territories in the Colombian Amazon region. In 2021, he donated the Hermann Weber Scholarship for particularly committed scholars – a unique initiative among our alumni to date.

Dr Thomas Krüggeler, long-time head of the Latin America department and Deputy Secretary General of KAAD, was formally bid farewell during the ceremonial event. For over two decades, the historian shaped the work of the department – through close cooperation with Catholic universities, continuous support of the partner committees in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Colombia, and Peru, as well as through personal contact with numerous alumnae and alumni in the region. In her tribute, Nora Kalbarczyk praised his profound knowledge of the ecclesiastical and academic landscape of Latin America and his international perspective on ecclesiastical developments, educational contexts, and global interrelations, which were appreciated far beyond the department itself.

The highlight of the ceremony was the presentation of the KAAD Foundation Peter Hünermann Award to Dr Ana María Bonet and Prof Dr Guillermo Kerz (both from Argentina) for their academic, ecclesial, and social commitment in the fields of global health and integral ecology in Argentina. In her words of thanks, Ana Bonet spoke of “an encouragement to continue – in responsibility before God and humanity.” Guillermo Kerz, Professor of Public Health at the National University Del Litoral in Santa Fe, was unable to attend due to illness. In his written message of thanks, he wrote: “KAAD has shaped my thinking, my work, my hope. I accept this award with humility and joy.” The award was presented to him a few days later after his recovery at the KAAD office.

The services and prayers formed an integral part of the Annual Convention – as an expression of spiritual connectedness across denominational and linguistic boundaries. At the “Encounter in Prayer” on Friday evening, voices were heard from the Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant traditions as well as from Muslim, Hindu, and Armenian Apostolic backgrounds. The multilingual liturgy – with prayers in Albanian, Ukrainian, Swahili, Arabic, and Armenian – thus became an expression of a global community of faith. In his address, Fr Prof Dr Ulrich Engel OP reminded the assembly that democratic culture does not aim for consensus but lives from the productive engagement with difference. Regarding the political and spiritual vulnerability of democratic structures, he noted that it is “our task as people shaped by faith to help heal this wounded heart [of democracy].”

The spiritual highlight was the international festive service on Saturday morning. Fr Dr Hans Langendörfer SJ celebrated the Mass together with Fr Prof Dr Ulrich Engel OP, Fr Prof Dr Thomas Eggensperger OP, and Fr Peter Claver Narh SVD. The regional groups from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East contributed to the liturgy with readings, songs, and liturgical elements from their respective traditions. In his sermon, Fr Langendörfer took up central themes of the Annual Convention. He addressed the destructive power of hatred and exclusion and called on the community to face the historical traces of human misguidance – the legacy of violence, contempt, and enmity. Christian faith, he said, is not limited to assent or withdrawal, but proves its strength where it enables controversy and opens paths of reconciliation.

The International Soirée on Saturday evening marked the conclusion of the Annual Convention. In contributions from their regions of origin, our scholars drew attention to issues shaping their respective social, political, or religious contexts. The soirée provided space to share experiences and make perspectives visible – in an atmosphere of attentiveness, openness, and mutual respect.

The Annual Convention clearly showed that democratic action begins where people listen to one another, share experiences, and take responsibility together – in educational processes, in spiritual and social contexts, and across cultural and regional boundaries.