AUA Associate Professor Armen Mazmanyan Presents Paper at International Workshop

YEREVAN, Armenia — On September 26 and 27, the American University of Armenia (AUA) College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) Associate Professor Armen Mazmanyan presented a paper at an international workshop held at the University of Chicago. 

The workshop, titled “Building Institutional Resilience,” was organized by the Malyi Center for the Study of Institutional and Legal Integrity at Chicago Law School and featured some of the leading scholars on constitution-building, democratic development, and institutional economics. It mainly focused on the recent assaults on democratic institutions in many countries and the properties of institutions rendering them resilient in the face of such assaults. Prominent scholars and policymakers from around the world convened to address the challenges of reversing declines in institutional quality amidst global tendencies toward democratic backsliding and illiberal populism, as well as to explore strategies for building institutions in situations of deep degradation. 

Dr. Mazmanyan’s paper, titled “Constitutional Choices After a (Democratic) Revolution,” discussed the policy dilemmas surrounding counter-majoritarian institutions that decision-makers face following regime transitions. Using case studies from Armenia, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, and other countries, the paper explored whether respecting limits on government power in transitional or non-consolidated democracies — where such limits potentially protect the interests of the former elites — ultimately serves the interests of democratization from both short- and long-term perspectives.