Parliaments at the Center of the Storm: Why Democracy Has No Future Without Modern, Effective, and Truly Representative Institutions

Chair of Legislative Studies

European and Comparative Legislative Studies Seminar

The Comparative and European Legislative Studies Seminar is organized by the Chair of Legislative Studies and focuses on the challenges and key issues facing European, American, and African democracies. 

In a context of democratic backsliding, polarization, digital manipulation, and geopolitical instability, parliaments stand at the eye of the storm. Far from being marginal, they remain the key arena where democratic legitimacy is built or undermined. When they weaken, lose transparency, or cease to reflect social diversity, the whole democratic architecture risks institutional capture, authoritarian drift, and public disillusionment.

This lecture examines why the future of democracy depends on the renewal of modern, effective, and truly representative parliaments. It examines core challenges facing 21st-century legislatures – power imbalances with the executive, information gaps, declining citizen trust, and technological disruptions – drawing on examples from Europe, Latin America, and multilateral parliamentary diplomacy. Arguing that parliamentary modernization is a democratic imperative, it focuses on three strategic pillars: stronger institutional capacity and oversight, enhanced international cooperation on transnational risks, and globally literate political leadership.

Speaker

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  Prof. Juan de Dios Cincunegui

  Director of the International Center for Parliamentary Studies, Research, and Foresight, Austral University (Argentina)

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