This session is in response to the current moment in history that requires us to develop new organizing modalities where dialogue is complementary with other approaches. Civic actors have to come together to block the threats we are facing to our democratic values, we need to bridge across differences to foster broad-based movements with the widest participation, and we have to build together the future we want to live in our communities and our nation. As we seek to work towards belonging for all, protect democracy, and combat authoritarian trends, civic actors have to be and do several things at once: in this session we will explore together the many paradoxes of being both in resistance mode while also being restorative. How do we stay future-oriented and hopeful while acknowledging and redressing past and current harms? In conversation together, we will interrogate these seeming tensions and investigate how we can wrestle in practice with these paradoxes, allowing us to move forward together with the broadest participation possible along many lines of difference.

Movements combining nativism, anti-pluralism, and populism that were once rare or relegated to the fringes of democratic politics, now dominate political landscapes worldwide.  From Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection in the U.S. to the rise of parties like Alternative für Deutschland in Germany and the consolidation of Fidesz in Hungary, these movements are reshaping democracies, blending exclusionary ideologies and authoritarian strategies.

The latest report from Míriam Juan-Torres, Head of Research at the Democracy & Belonging Forum, offers a powerful new framework to understand a rapidly spreading global political trend: authoritarian populism. This approach helps make sense of movements and leaders that blend anti-elite, nativist sentiments with authoritarian tactics—all while operating within democratic contexts.