Apply for the specialised course Challenges to Democracies! It is the third in a set of 12 specialised online courses implemented by RGSL in 2021 and open for professionals from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan free of charge.
The course will take place throughout June 2021. It has 32 teaching hours consisting of lectures and seminars. Course sessions will take place on specified days approximately three times a week through the Zoom platform. All course participants will have access to the RGSL study portal, where course materials will be available. Participants are expected to fulfil the assignments as well as pass an exam to be rewarded with 1.5 ECTS for course completion.
This course analyses these contemporary trends over four sessions. The first two sessions examine the nature of democracy and contemporary authoritarianism, outlining processes of regime change, particularly focusing on transition, democratization, democratic consolidation and more recent trends of democratic backsliding and breakdown. The third session focuses on the impact of modern populism on democratic regimes. The final session considers different responses to these contemporary challenges.
The course will be taught by RGSL Visiting Professor Dr.Soc.Pol. Daunis Auers. He is a co-founder and director of Certus think-tank, Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Latvia and was a Jean Monnet Professor (2013-2016) of European integration. He has been a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California-Berkeley (2005-2006) and a Baltic-American Freedom Foundation Scholar at Wayne State University in Detroit (2014). He has published widely on Baltic and European politics.
Eligible candidates for RGSL online specialised courses are professionals from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, with at least two years of work experience in the public sector, non-governmental organisations or academia.
All specialised online courses are free of charge. The project is implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia and the United States government.
Apply until 20 May 23:59 Riga time here:
More information about the courses: https://www.rgsl.edu.lv/programmes/specialised-online-courses