Democracy is hard work

Alumni of the European Young Leaders (EYL40) network met in Brussels on Friday with a brief to seek innovative solutions to citizens’ dwindling faith in democracy and the growing influence of populists’ authoritarian messaging.

“We firmly believe that democracy, right now, doesn’t work. It’s slightly off-kilter and needs to be rebalanced to reflect what the reality is,” Adam Nyman, Director of Citizen Outreach and Engagement at Friends of Europe, told the group.

Nyman explained how ‘2024 Voices’ – a project led by Debating Europe, the citizen engagement unit of Friends of Europe – is using data on the nature of European democracy; analysing focus-group information; and examining different approaches to strengthening democracy through, for example, civic education, citizens’ assemblies or expanding the electorate by lowering voting ages.

As part of Friends of Europe’s drive to endow Europe with a Renewed Social Contract by 2030, the ‘2024 Voices‘ project is bringing in 2,024 citizens in seven EU countries to gauge opinions on issues relating to democracy, economics, climate change and security.

“What we are doing is listening to what citizens say and feeding that into the activities that Friends of Europe does,” Nyman explained. “It is at the core of everything we do. Without it, we would be absolutely lost.”

For real-world lessons on democracy, the group heard from two 2015-2016 EYL40s, Michał Olszewski, Deputy Mayor of Warsaw, on October’s parliamentary election in Poland, where a centrist coalition defeated the populist incumbents; and Ivan Štefunko, Founding Chairman of Progresívne Slovensko and Consultant in Innovation Policies, whose party scored strongly in September’s Slovak elections despite a victory for pro-Russian populists.

They examined the political divide between big city and rural voters, stressed the need for positive messaging and loyalty to core values, and emphasised the necessity of progressive parties looking beyond their core educated urban electorate to reach out to neglected groups.

“Where the democratic movement failed [in the past], it was on dignity and caring about people. They focused on economy, they focused on being stronger, moving forward to the future, but they didn’t really care what’s happening in the rural areas […] Now it’s changed,” Olszewski said. “One of the most important things, when we are in unstable times like we have now, is to care about everyone.”

The young leaders also brainstormed in a series of parallel roundtables on options for building a democracy fit for the 21st century, looking at increased democratic suffrage through civic education and capacity building; embracing democratic innovation; and the threats and opportunities of digital democracy.

Among the ideas to emerge were calls for greater political outreach to school-age people, signature apps to counter deep fake messaging, public funding for independent journalism, and community events to counter social isolation.

This event was limited to European Young Leaders (EYL40) and took place in Brussels. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook, and join the #EYL40 discussion!

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• #CriticalThinking | Insecurity and the rise of populism, by Philippe Van Parijs

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