Guest Lecture: Discontent and Idiocy: Antidemocracy and Democratic Renewal, Professor Matthew Rhodes-Purdy

Matthew Rhodes-Purdy is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Clemson University. His research combines democratic theory with political behavior to study challenges to contemporary democracies, especially populism and extremism.

The past decade has seen a massive surge of antidemocratic politics (e.g. populism, radical right nativism, etc.) around the world. Prof. Rhodes-Purdy argues that economic troubles inflamed cultural grievances through the activation of sustained negative emotions like anxiety and resentment. Political leaders and activists must recommit to organizing the public and to democratizing all aspects of society if we are to move past the age of discontent.

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