Events

Below is a list of events (2009-2010) in which John Keane spoke about his work on the history of democracy.

 

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FOR EVENTS AND NEWS THAT DO NOT CONCERN THE BOOK PLEASE CLICK HERE

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28 March	The 2009 Eric Paine Memorial Lecture, London - listen to the recording of the lecture here.
22 April	Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences, Humboldt University
29 April	‘War and Democracy: Unsettling Perspectives’, London Metropolitan University
9 May	Speech at the official opening of the Museum of Australian Democracy, Old Parliament House, Canberra. The Life and Death of Democracy provided the key source material for the opening timeline (2500 BCE to 1770 CE) featured at the new Museum of Australian Democracy. Located in the Old Parliament House, in the capital city of Canberra, the museum was officially opened on May 9th 2009 by the former Australian Prime Minister, the Hon R.J.L. Hawke AC. Images from the opening ceremony and further details of the collection can be found at http://moadoph.gov.au/
21 May	‘Rethinking Democracy Promotion in the Post-Bush Era’, Prifysgol Aberystwyth/Aberystwyth University
30 May	‘The Indigenisation of the Language and Institutions of Democracy’, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, India
8 June	Start the Week, BBC RADIO 4 - Podcast here Speech at the Bicentenary Dinner to commemorate the life and work of Thomas Paine, Thetford, Norfolk
11 June	Night Waves, BBC RADIO 3, 21:15 Listen to the podcast
15 June	The People's Debate sponsored by the Evening Standard, held at The Royal Geographical Society, London. Doors open at 6 pm. More info here
17 June	'Electoral Reform: Right Question? Right Answer? And Who Decides?', Royal Society of Arts, a 1:00 PM. London. More info here
25 June	Book launch debate, Dialogue Society - Thursday, 25 June 2009, 06:45pm - Details and pictures here
29 June	Guest of Andrew Neil and Anita Anand at the Daily Politicson BBC2. Watch the video
30 June	‘Monitory Democracy: The Secret History of Democracy Since 1945’, The Young Foundation, London
6 July	Guest of Riz Khan at Al Jazeera's One on One watch the video here - 6 July
21 – 30  July	‘Lectures on the History of Democracy’, National Institute Of Advanced Study In Social Sciences (IAS), Fudan University, Shanghai
21 August	Edinburgh International Book Festival
24-29 August Australia	Australian book launch tour (for more info click here) The tour includes a Lecture a in the House of Representatives, Old Parliament House (27th, evening) and the Occasional Lecture,in the Senate, in Canberra (Read synopsis, full text and watch video here).
17 September	‘The Future of Democracy’, European University Institute, Florence
4 October	Sydney Opera House - IQ² Debate: Democracy Is Not For Everyone . This even is part of Festival of Dangerous Ideas- Watch the video here
10 October	State of Play: Humphrey Hawksley and John Keane: Democracy - The event is part of The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival. Date: 10 October 2009. Saturday 10 October 2009 at 12:00 pm (60mins) Event 34 at Parabola Arts Centre £6 (reserved seats) Synopsis: We often take democracy for granted, but what do we know about its origins, its history and most importantly its current state? John Keane, Politics Professor and author of The Life and Death of Democracy, joins Humphrey Hawksley, journalist and author of Democracy Kills, to explore its history and consider the state of democracy across the globe. The festival runs from the 9th-18th October, for more details see the Festival webpage here. Kapka Kassabova — writer in residence at The Times Cheltenham Literature Festiva wrote an account of Keane's and Hawksle's talk. "Keane — who looks like Bono and speaks like Churchill —" wrote Kassabova "... warned us against a current zeitgeist of excessive disillusionment with democracy, and urged us to distinguish the real thing from its misuse, as in Berlusconi’s Italy. ‘The word democracy is in a hairy state of abuse,’ he said, an apt way to describe Berlusconi’s tortured hairstyle. He talked grippingly about hubris and how democracy is the only way to prevent it from fully expressing itself for an indefinite amount of time. Hawksley retaliated by inviting the audience to imagine that an apocalypse has befallen Britain."
13 October	John Keane speaks at the Rustat Conference - The Future of Democracy Tuesday, 13 October, 2009 - Jesus College, Cambridge. The title of his talk is: Democracy in a Globalising World. The proceedings of the Future of Democracy Conference held on 13 October 2009 are now available in the electronic Archive: click here
14 October	John Keane speaks with BBC Hard Talk host about being accused of spying for MI-6 by the Iran government Watch video here
27 October	Event at the House of Lords, details TBC
03 November	'Monitory democracy', the Oxford History of Political Thought Research Seminar. 5pm, Tuesday, Swire Seminar Room, University College. More information here
7 November	‘Old Age Without Wretchedness: Paine’s Vision of Growing Old’, Final Public Lecture, Tom Paine 200 Celebrations, Thetford, Norfolk. (read lecture here)
12 November	Tsinghua University, China 'Reflections on the new media revolution'
5 December	‘What's so good about democracy’, The Dundee Christmas Lecture, Dundee, Scotland. More here
10 December	American University of Beirut 'Rethinking the History of Democracy'
	2010
7-10 February	In February 2010, John Keane delivered lectures and gave interviews about The Life and Death of Democracy in Spain. There was special interest in the birthplace of modern parliaments, Leon. Click here to read a selection of articles from Spanish media on the book and John Keane.
March 2010	n March 2010, John Keane was in Slovenia to give a lecture at the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Ljubljana (24 March) on the topic of Mass Media and Democracy. During his staying he gave two interviews: one to Dnevnik in which he suggested that anyone who defines Democracy as the government of the people does not understand the historical trends that have shaped democracy throughout the centuries. And one to Delo in which he remarked that parliamentary democracy has become so poisoned with lobbying that voters no longer trust the parties they once voted for. Dnevnik's interview here; Delo's interview here.
April 2010	The Life and Death of Democracy: Author Meets Critics A Session from the Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting 2010. - Saturday, April 10, 2010; 10:15 AM. Washington DC. Abstract: This session is designed to highlight a new book by the U.K.-based Australian historian and political theorist, John Keane. The Life and Death of Democracy (Simon & Schuster and WW Norton, 2009) is a global history of democratic institutions. It shows how many different individuals, groups and societies around the globe have contributed to the invention, development, and diffusion of key democratic institutions from the secret ballot to the political party to trial by jury to freedom of the press to separation of powers. The book proposes that today we live in a new age of “monitory democracy.” Democracy, Keane argues, is a human invention “that now ranks in historical importance with the wheel, the printing press, the steam engine and the cloning of stem cells.” This invention, he holds, was originally “a potent form of wishful thinking” that is still with us today – even as the specific forms of democracy change. The late Ralf Dahrendorf, distinguished scholar and former Parliamentary Secretary of State in the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called the book “a masterpiece of historical writing and at the same time a major contribution to contemporary debate.” The panel will have the following format: Professor Keane will have a short time to summarize the main thrust of the book (perhaps 15 minutes). Three critics will then have 15-20 minutes each to respond to the book – they are Alex Keyssar, Kennedy School, Harvard; Jane Mansbridge, Kennedy School, Harvard; and David Thelen, Indiana University. Professor Keane will then respond to the three critics. Michael Schudson will moderate the discussion.

 

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