An international conference on “Democracy in crisis: Tocqueville's theory of democracy and its relevance in the age of (golbal) de-democratization” took place at the University of Regensburg at the end of May. It was organized by Dr. Sarah Rebecca Strömel and Prof. Dr. Helene Odzuck from the Department of Political Science at the Chair of Political Philosophy, Theory and History of Ideas.
One of the program items was the keynote speech “Tocqueville and the Future of American Democracy” by Prof. Aurelian Craiutu, a leading political theorist whose work spans the history of modern political thought, with a particular focus on the intellectual legacy of moderation and liberalism.
Professor Craiutu is Chair of the Department of Political Science at Indiana University Bloomington and Adjunct Professor at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropic Studies. He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University and has held visiting positions at prestigious institutions including Université Paris Cité, Central European University, and Pompeu Fabra University.
A recipient of the Leo Strauss Award from the American Political Science Association for the best doctoral dissertation in political theory, Professor Craiutu has also earned fellowships from institutions such as the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the James Madison Program, and the Niskanen Center.
One of the hallmarks of Professor Craiutu’s academic career is his deep engagement with the thought of Alexis de Tocqueville. He is not only a distinguished Tocqueville scholar, but also an accomplished editor and translatorof Tocquevilles key texts. Among his most influential contributions is the critically acclaimed volume Tocqueville on America after 1840: Letters and Other Writings (Cambridge University Press, 2009), co-edited with Jeremy Jennings, which opened new perspectives on Tocqueville’s later political reflections. He also co-edited Conversations with Tocqueville (2009) and America Through European Eyes (2009), further demonstrating his commitment to exploring transatlantic dialogues on democracy.
In addition to his Tocqueville scholarship, Professor Craiutu has edited classic works by major thinkers such as François Guizot, Germaine de Staël, and Jacques Necker, bringing neglected voices of liberal political tradition back into contemporary discourse.
What sets Professor Craiutu apart is not only his mastery of the intellectual history of Europe, particularly of French political thought, but also his ability to draw lessons from this tradition for the present day. In books such as Faces of Moderation: The Art of Balance in an Age of Extremes (2017) and Why Not Moderation? Letters to Young Radicals (2024), he reflects on the pressing challenges of our time—polarization, democratic fragility, and ideological rigidity—and proposes a compelling defense of moderation as a courageous and necessary political stance.
In his keynote, Professor Craiutu demonstrated once again how the study of past thinkers is not merely an academic exercise, but a vital resource for diagnosing and navigating the dilemmas of contemporary politics.