The Future of Democracy

Fears and hopes for the future of democracy in Europe and globally are rising. Electorates are seen as increasingly distrustful, divided and disinformed about politics, while pressure for change intensifies from the ‘bottom up’, as younger Gen Z’rs and activist movements campaign for a radical restructuring of established institutions and greater social justice. Underlying and propelling these new trends are rapid technological change, economic crises, a global health pandemic, and a new questioning of established long held norms and orthodoxies such as whether democracies require the losers consent.

This collection seeks to draw together the latest empirical, conceptual and normative research on democracy and political change to spotlight the current strengths and weaknesses of our core democratic institutions, organizations and participatory practices. How durable and robust are they? Are we on the precipice of a new democratic crisis and a move toward more authoritarian modes of rule? Or is democracy simply ‘shape shifting’ into a new, digitally enhanced form with new ideological fault lines and alternative forms of representation?


Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• Models of Democracy
• Political Trust
• The Growth of Populist politics
• ‘Infowars’ Democratic Security and Subversion
• Political Extremism and Polarisation
• Party change and party democracy
• Protest movements and social activism
• The Impact of Global Pandemic on democratic societies
• Media Fragmentation
• Social Media and the rise of platform politics
• Electoral System Integrity
• Inequality and democracy

Collection advisors: Rachel Gibson (University of Manchester, UK), Esmeralda Bon (Manchester University, UK), Andrea Römmele (Hertie School, Germany)