Established in 2012, the Gershowitz Conference is a living memorial to Dr. Michael Gershowitz, an learned scholar and eminent practitioner, who had initiated the forum

Democratization suffered more reversals in 2021, with the percentage of people living in a democracy falling to well below 50% and authoritarian regimes gaining ground. For the fifth consecutive year, writes the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), the number of countries moving in an authoritarian direction exceeds the number of countries moving in a democratic direction. In fact, the number shifting in the direction of authoritarianism is three times the number moving towards democracy (idea.int/our-work/what-we-do/global-state-democracy). At the inaugural Summit for Democracy, President Joe Biden declared: “Democracy doesn’t happen by accident. We must defend it, fight for it, strengthen it, renew it.”

Clearly, democratic diminution is deepening worldwide, says the Washington, DC-based National Democratic Institute (NDI). In Africa, the health of democracy is anemic with less than two dozen of the 55 countries in the continent considered partial democracies. In the “State of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa: Democratic progress at risk,” a Think Tank publication of the European Parliament attributed the fragility of democracies in sub-Saharan Africa to low socio-economic development, conflict and insecurity, weak institutions, lack of judicial independence, manipulation of electoral laws and constitutional norms, as well as serious limitations on journalism and freedom of expression. In a sense, it is not the political form of democracy that is essential to journalism, but rather the freedom of expression and relative journalistic autonomy afforded to media practitioners. Democracies, as shown in recent years, may confer the legal framework for freedom of speech but they do not offer protection for journalists.

In Europe, over a dozen journalists have been documented as killed covering Russia's war on Ukraine, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The Russian Federation has long stifled independent media within its borders, with journalists escaping that country itself or facing brutal retribution, including targeted assassinations. Likewise, Belarusian journalists, who earlier departed their homeland for Ukraine owing to Alexander Lukashenko’s crackdown on press freedom, were once again endangered and seeking refuge elsewhere. The United Nations calculates that twelve million people in Ukraine will need humanitarian relief and protection, with over four million Ukrainian nationals becoming refugees in nearby countries. Importantly, as noted by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, following the recent Russian attack upon the Port of Odesa: “those missiles were a potent reminder that millions of Ukrainians are still under siege, and tens of millions around the world are being driven to hunger by Russia’s actions.” Russia's unprovoked war on Ukraine, a country accurately called the “breadbasket of Europe”, is amplifying fears of a worldwide food crisis, exacerbating current obstacles to food security across the globe with associated health insecurity arising from malnutrition. The European Union holds that it is incumbent on itself and the international community to prepare for an array of possible developments in this realm. The observance of the UN Charter and preservation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine are paramount global challenges.

As part of CMPI’s decade of partnership with Rutgers University's School of Public Affairs and Administration, the 2022 edition of the Gershowitz Conference on Media and Democratic Governance will engage a broad spectrum of practitioners, academics, civil society leaders, journalists, and other stakeholders with professional expertise on priority topics related to democratic recession around the world. The CMPI-SPAA partnership creates a unique platform that facilitates discussion around specific subject areas in the democracy, governance, and media fields, with the goal of generating new knowledge and understanding, forging, and expanding new international, intercultural, interdisciplinary research networks, and partnerships. The Gershowitz Conference, being activity based, rely on participants interacting with each other. This results in group learning, an opportunity to build networks, and provide a broader understanding of key issues in media and democratic governance. CMPI encourages participants to reflect on improving their practices, processes, and their organizations overall by providing comparative examples and alternative approaches, generating new thinking, and strategies or support for institutional reform.

Conference Panels

Panel I: Tracking current democratic crisis around the world

According to Freedom House’s 2022 report, global freedom faces a dire threat following relentless attacks by the enemies of liberal democracy. In countries with long-established democracies, internal forces have exploited the shortcomings in their systems, distorting national politics to promote hatred, violence, and unbridled power. Unfortunately, less developed democracies copy the trends in greater democracies often with negative consequences. The global order is nearing a tipping point, and democracy’s defenders must work together to help guarantee freedom for all people. Panelists review democratic trends around the world with focus on immigration, elections, and public health crisis.

Panel II: Taking Stock: Media Freedom around elections, pandemics, or political conflicts.

Digital authoritarianism — the use of digital information technology by authoritarian regimes to surveil, repress, and manipulate domestic and foreign populations — is reshaping the power balance between democracies and autocracies. The unbridled collection of personal data has broken down traditional notions of privacy. And a cohort of countries is moving toward digital authoritarianism. The internet is growing less free around the world, and democracy itself is withering under its influence. The flurry of activity since 2016 after Brexit and the election of Donald Trump helped shine a spotlight on the general quality and structure of contemporary media environments with functioning democracies. While the spread of mis-/disinformation has resulted in the mobilization of wider society around the real dangers arising from unverified and inaccurate reporting around elections, pandemics, or political conflicts, the decline of media freedom around the world present real threats even to the so called functioning or partial democracies. Panelists dive in to provide descriptive and causal evidence on the scope of diminishing media freedom, sharing information in secure platforms, and freedom of expression as well as possible interventions.

Panel III: Democracy, Constitutionalism, and the administrative state

As it turns out, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s social contract - a compact between the individual and the state is constantly under renewed assault. The contract is probably broken and needs to be fixed. Shortly after the 2016 election, presidential advisor Stephen Bannon vowed to pursue the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” signaling the new administration’s view that parts of government itself had usurped power from the American people. But while the administrative state may have been a new term for many Americans, debates around this so-called fourth branch of government have persisted since its origins in the late nineteenth century: Is the administrative state (i.e., the agencies, people, and processes of the executive establishment) constitutional? Who controls it? What limits should it face? And is it time for significant change? Do politicians and civil servants have the incentive to make government more accountable, efficient, and truly representative?