麻豆视频入口

The 2026 Venice Seminars and Summer School will explore the relation-ship between civic virtue, character formation, and public ethics at amoment when liberal democracies face mounting pressures from autocratic actors, identity-driven polarization, and opportunistic leadership. Our premise is that institutions alone are not enough: democratic resilience also depends on shared moral cultures and forms of citizenship聽grounded in responsibility, temperance, competence, and a commitment to the common good. We aim to understand how 鈥渧irtuous鈥� leaders and communities emerge, which mechanisms encourage ethical behavior, and how religious and secular traditions can contribute to character formation within pluralistic societies. Recognizing that religion is often manipulated as a tool of exclusion, the seminar examines both the political misuse of the sacred and the positive聽potential of faith traditions for social cohesion, care, solidarity, trust-building and reconciliation. Through real-world case studies, interdisciplinary contributions, and global perspectives, Venice becomes a laboratory for rethinking virtue as a shared social practice capable of addressing聽the clear signs of a crisis or decline in liberal democracy: from elite indifference to resentment, from corrosive polarization to institutional fragility. The goal is to outline a renewed vision of leadership and citizenship rooted in character, integrity, and reciprocity, showing how ethical revitalization can become a decisive resource for democracy鈥檚 future.聽

Cosponsored by Reset Dialogues on Civilizations, Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy, and Templeton Religion Trust.