Educational research in authoritarian times (Editorial)

Abstract

Across the world, political winds are filling authoritarian sails. From China to Hungary, Brazil to Poland, Turkey to Egypt, Russia to the USA, ‘strong leaders’ hold the helm. Democratic institutions creak or crack. Elections are ‘managed’, postponed, abolished; voters are suborned by ‘fake news’; opposition is harassed, banned, branded treasonous or terroristic. Checks and balances on executive power are ignored or derided; leaders’ terms of office are extended. Parties, policies and leaders – euphemistically dignified ‘populist’ just a few years ago (cf Waller et al., 2017) – no longer conceal their contempt for democratic process and discussion. Of course, in the span of human history, authoritarian rulers have been commonplace. But for the best part of a century, it was possible to see them as on the ebb-tide of History. Liberation and civil rights, proletarian revolutions and the rise of labour, social reform and universal suffrage, gender equality and gay liberation – though not always in step, diverse movements across the world marched toward freedom, equality and democracy. The pivotal moment was 1945: the defeat of fascism and its horrors engendered a rules-based international order and gave legitimacy to democratic voice and human rights.