This talk is about the potential decay of Western democracy, which we usually consider as something here to stay. But it may not be. Growing inequality puts a strain on democracy. It risks setting in motion some selffeeding processes that could severely damage democracy, even degrade it to something unworthy of the name. Taylor will examine some of these processes.

Taylor is a leading public intellectual as well as world-renown philosopher. He is the winner of a number of prestigious awards including the Templeton prize, the Kluge prize and most recently the Berggruen prize. Some of his recent books include Modern Social Imaginaries (2004), A Secular Age (2007), and The Language Animal (2016).