ASERI is pleased to present the volume

Completed democracy and the outdatedness of liberalism
dialogue with Michele Boldrin

Wednesday 15 March, 4.30 p.m.

in ASERI (Via San Vittore 18) and ONLINE

Introduces:

Vittorio Emanuele Parsi, Director of ASERI

The concept of "liberal democracy" is based on two fundamental assumptions: all citizens have equal legal rights and substantial capacities to participate in the decision-making process of the polis to which they belong, and the social conditions and procedural mechanisms in place are such as to allow everyone a rational understanding - based on data and logic - of the nature and implications of the decisions that are taken. It is a widespread belief that the internal dynamics of democratic systems lead to the progressive realization of the first condition, the truly decisive one, and that this leads the decision-making process to express the "popular" will, bringing democracy closer to completion. Prof. Boldrin's thesis, on the other hand, leads to the opposite conclusion: the true destiny of accomplished democracy is populism, an inevitable consequence of technological and economic-social evolution, which creates a contradiction in liberal democracy because it generates a trade-off between the two fundamental assumptions.

Around the table:

Michele Boldrin, Joseph G. Hoyt Distinguished University Professor of Economics, Washington University in Saint Louis
Vittorio Emanuele Parsi, ASERI Director
Marco Lossani, Full Professor of Political Economy, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart
Nicola Pasini, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Milan

Michele Boldrin has been Joseph G. Hoyt University Distinguished Professor of Economics at Washington University in St Louis (MO) since 2006; he is also a Research Fellow at CEPR (London), Academic Advisor at the Institute for New Structural Economics (Peking University) and Visiting Scholar at ITAM (Mexico-DF).

Born in Padua in 1956, he graduated in Economics and Commerce from Ca' Foscari (Venice) in 1982, and obtained a Ph.D. in Economics in 1987 from the University of Rochester under the direction of Lionel W. McKenzie.
Later, he worked at the University of Chicago (1986-87), UCLA (1987-90), Santa Fe Institute (1989-90), Northwestern University (1990-94), Carlos III de Madrid (1994-99), University of Minnesota (1999-2006), and Washington University in St Louis (since 2006). A member of the Santa Fe Institute from 1986 to 1997, he directed its economics program in 1989-1990. Academic Director (2007-2012) and Executive Director (2012-2014) of FEDEA (Madrid); Co-Director (1998-2002) della “School on the Mathematics of Economics”, The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste; Consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (1999-2006) and St Louis (2006-2016). Visiting Professor, in different years, at Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, UCLA, Academia Sinica, HKUST, University of Chicago, ITAM, Universidad de los Andes, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, IGIER-Boconni, IAS-Wuhan, Kyoto University, University of Tokyo and Ca' Foscari, Venice. Fellow of: Econometric Society, Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory, Society for Economic Dynamics and Society for Economic Measurement.  

He has been Associate Editor of: Chaos - An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Sciences, Journal of Nonlinear Economic Dynamics, Economic Theory, Econometrica, International Economic Review and Editor of: Cuadernos Economicos, Review of Economic Dynamics and Research in Economics. Consultant, in the past for various governments and international agencies. 

He is the author of Against Intellectual Monopoly (2008, Abolire la proprietà intellectual, Laterza 2010), with David K. Levine, and Tremonti: Istruzioni per il disuso (2010), with Alberto Bisin, Sandro Brusco, Andrea Moro and Giulio Zanella and four other books in English and Spanish as well as about a hundred articles in scientific and peer-reviewed journals.

Participation is free upon registration. 

Limited seats in the hall.

Info: info.aseri@unicatt.it