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King’s College London and the World Values Survey Association are pleased to invite both in-person and online participants to this year’s Ronald F. Inglehart Honorary Lecture, an annual keynote event launched in 2022 by the WVSA. Established in memory of the late Professor Ronald F. Inglehart (1934–2021), the founding president of the WVSA and a pioneer in cross-national survey research, this lecture series commemorates his extraordinary contributions to the study of cultural change, values, and democracy around the world.

We are honored to welcome Robert Mattes, Professor of Government and Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde, as this year’s keynote speaker. A leading scholar on democratic attitudes and political behavior, Professor Mattes will present a lecture entitled: Anti-Democratic Parties and the Public’s Support for Democracy.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday, May 21, 2025 starting at 13:00 BST (12:00 GMT). The lecture will be conducted in hybrid format. Online attendance will be organized via Zoom. Onsite participants are welcome to join us at Large Meeting Room, First Floor, The Policy Institute at King's College London, 22 Kingsway London WC2B 6LE United Kingdom. Attendance is free of charge. A video recording will be made available after the event on the WVSA website.

We warmly welcome scholars, students, practitioners, and members of the public with an interest in democracy, political culture, and global value change to join us for what promises to be a timely and thought-provoking event.

Anti-Democratic Parties and the Public’s Support for Democracy

This research explores how the emergence and influence of anti-democratic political parties are shaping popular attitudes toward democratic governance. The analysis investigates whether such parties serve primarily to attract existing authoritarian-minded voters (a “cueing effect”), or whether they actively persuade their supporters to adopt more authoritarian attitudes (a “persuasion effect”)—and what these dynamics mean for the health and resilience of democratic institutions worldwide.

Robert Mattes is Professor of Government and Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde, UK. Born and educated in the United States, Mattes spent the past 25 years in South Africa working at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, and teaching at the University of Cape Town, before coming to Strathclyde. His research examines the process of democratization, with a particular focus on Africa and South Africa. Mattes is co-founder and Senior Adviser of Afrobarometer, a regular survey of over 30 countries in Africa (). Mattes is also co-founder and co-Principal Investigator of the African Legislatures Project, a study of legislatures and legislators in 17 countries (),and the Principal Investigator of the South African National Election Study, a longitudinal series of post-election surveys dating back to 1994 ().