On February 26, 2021, a one-day online workshop took place as part of the international conference "The Political Economy of Democracy and Dictatorship" (PEDD). Due to pandemic constraints, the organization team at the Chair of Political Economy had decided to host a digital workshop , inviting 35 papers for presentation. The papers had been selected through a submission-and-reviewing process by the scientific committee, which, as in the years before, consisted of Prof. Dr. Thomas Apolte from the University of Münster, Prof. Dr. Mario Ferrero from the University of Eastern Piedmont, Prof. Dr. Mario Gilli from Bicocca University in Milan and Prof. Dr. Yuan Li from the University of Duisburg-Essen.

­­Following the proven conference format, the opening speech by Prof. Apolte was followed by parallel sessions in which 35 papers were presented and discussed via zoom. In order to provide a forum for the research community beyond the presentations and also to strengthen networking among workshop participants, a mutual review process was organized in which papers were exchanged and discussed between the participants.

As it is common at PEDD conferences, a wide variety of issues in the field of Political Economy were discussed, including research on populism and political protests, terrorism as well as economic development and democratization. Once again, there was also a special session on “The Political Economy of Europe” in cooperation with the University of Milan-Bicocca, which was very well received.

With almost 80 participants, the online workshop was well attended and, despite the virtual environment, there was concentrated listening and eager discussion. Thanks to the virtual format, the presenters benefitted from the feedback of a large number of external guests from all around the world.

Date and Location

26 February 2021

Scientific Board

Thomas Apolte, University of Münster, Germany

Mario Ferrero, University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy

Mario Gilli, Bicocca University Milan, Italy

Yuan Li, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany