Workshop: Cartographies of Anti-Oligarchy

An event for the project “Contours of a Non-Oligarchic Democratic Future”.

1-2 Sept. 2025, University of Amsterdam, Binnengasthuis 2, Room 0.08

Day 1

• 12:00 - 1:00 Registration & Lunch Snacks 

• 1:00 - 1:15 Welcome 

1:15 - 2:45 Session 1

• Franco Palazzi (Maastricht): ‘Critiques of Capitalism and Oligarchy Studies: Some Initial Reflections’ 

• Emily Katzenstein (TU Munich) & Manon Westphal (TU Munich) ‘Who Rules? Oligarchy and the Translation of Wealth into Political Power’ 

• Janosch Prinz (Maastricht) & Manon Westphal (TU Munich) ‘What is Oligarchic Democracy?’ 

• 2:45 - 3:15 Coffee Break

  3:15 - 4:15 Session 2

• Hugo Drochon (Nottingham) 'Elites and Dynamic Democracy' 

• 4:15 - 4:30 Break 

  4:30 - 5:30 Session 3

• Albena Azmanova (City-London, online): ‘From Oligarchy to Autocracy: How Forma Imperii Engenders Forma Regiminis 

  Day 2 

  9:30 - 10:30 Session 4

• Lore-Marie Junghans (Hamburg) ‘Trade unions, not tribunates. Contrasting two proposals of anti-oligarchic democratic innovation’ 

• 10:30 - 11:00 Coffee break 

  11:00 -12:00 Session 5

• Ben Cross (Wuhan) ‘Towards an agent-centred theory of the tribunate: implications for representation and selection’ 

• 12:00 - 1:00 Lunch 

  1:00 - 2:00 Session 6

• Camila Vergara (Essex) ‘Oligarchic Power, Anti-Oligarchic Institutions & Plebeian Counter-Hegemonic Spaces’ 

• 2:00 - 2:15 pm Coffee 

  2:15 - 3:00 pm Session 7

• General discussion and closing 

This event and project are funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, in collaboration with University of Amsterdam, Maastricht University, and Technische Universität München.