The challenges and pressures on democratic systems have become increasingly complex and multifaceted. In recent years, societies worldwide have faced a multitude of political, institutional, economic, social, environmental, and technological challenges, testing their resilience. These difficulties often expose the limitations of democratic governments in effectively tackling issues that influence the lives of citizens and impact their worldview, such as feelings of social and economic instability.

Besides the period of global decline that democracy has entered, there is, on the other hand, the perception that democracies are not delivering on their underlying functions. As a result, public support for democracy is steadily diminishing. There is a trend towards lower electoral turnout, lack of trust in elites and institutions, and a rise of populism, nationalism, and polarisation. These shifts have increasingly underscored the crucial need to enhance the resilience of democratic systems. Democratic resilience is generally described as the ability of political systems to not only navigate through crises but also to adapt and strengthen their democratic foundations. However, at the heart of reinforcing the resilience of democratic institutions is the need to build trust among citizens.

There is a need to better understand the drivers and trends influencing democratic systems' effectiveness in addressing contemporary and future challenges. Continued evolution is crucial for democracies to remain resilient.

Objectives

The project seeks to explore and analyse key issues that can strengthen and innovate democratic systems, equipping them to better face future trends and challenges, and, in doing so, to increase trust in democracy. More specifically, it seeks to identify, understand, and assess the specific challenges confronting European democracies and to explore and evaluate approaches that can enhance their resilience. A significant focus is on building resilience through innovative actions, ensuring that democratic systems can effectively and robustly address key challenges. In essence, the project aims to understand how to strengthen and advance democratic systems to ensure they are robust, adaptable, and trusted by citizens.

Considering the complexity and the broadness of the topic, the project has started with a scoping phase (first phase) that was intended to direct future work by shaping its objectives, scope and methodological approach. It aimed at building an initial view, laying the foundations for future work.

The scoping phase aimed to identify and explore critical challenges, emerging trends and drivers that could impact and influence the future of democracy. The next phases are expected to delve deeper into key challenges and to enable consideration of the interconnectivity between different topics and, with that, development of potential actions.

Outcomes

Scoping report: future challenges to democracy 

The scoping report presents the first (scoping) phase which identifies a set of ten challenges and analyses the latest literature to understand influencing factors, root causes and potential solutions.

Read the report

The second phase aimed to provide a deeper analysis of three of the topics identified in the first phase:

• Strengthening citizens' support for and engagement in democracy
• The future of political institutions: deepening resilience for democracy, stability and prosperity
• Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on democracy