Pippa Norris: Academic Freedom, Right to Expression and Democratic Backsliding

• In Event: Democratic Backsliding and Academic Freedom I: A Macro-Perspective

Abstract

Recent years have seen intense polarization on college campuses pitting the values of academic free speech and rights to peaceful protest versus the values of protection from hate speech and tolerance of alternative viewpoints. Debates have intensified recently, not least at Harvard, Pennsylvania and MIT, following student demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas conflict, and heated criticism of these protests among leading donors and politicians, with university administrators facing a tricky balancing act caught in the midst of the culture wars.

Accordingly this study seeks to understand the attitudes towards academic freedom of expression around the world, focusing on faculty views towards free speech on campus, moral censorship, and perceptions of a cancel culture. How do these attitudes vary among faculty in countries around the globe and also differ by factors such as their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, employment status, and ideological values?

To examine empirical evidence, after reviewing the literature, Part II sets out the research design. It draws upon micro-level survey data collected from the second ECPR-IPSA World of Political Science survey (WPS-2023), monitoring the background and attitudes of almost 2000 political scientists living and working in around 100 countries worldwide. Part III analyzes the results. The conclusion in Part IV summarizes the findings and broader implications for democratic backsliding.

Author

• Pippa Norris, Harvard University