Challenges To Democracy in Europe: Insights Into A Complex and Turbulent Political Climate

ISSN 2599-8293
CORDIS Results Pack on

challenges to democracy
in Europe
A thematic collection of innovative EU-funded research results
October 2021
Insights into a complex and

turbulent political climate
ND
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C TI O
Research and E
S DI
Innovation
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Contents
3
Editorial
Who are EU? Forging a cultural identity that
Insights into a complex and turbulent
reflects modern Europe political climate
5 The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on our democratic societies,
posing unprecedented challenges to globalisation, personal freedoms, the
The secret robot armies fighting to
reliability of information and, ultimately, the ability of democratic institutions to
undermine democracy
cope with the rapidly changing societal demands. This adds up to a tumultuous
decade for European democracy, that saw the rise of populist movements,
7 anti-European sentiments fuelling disintegration pulsions, and growing
Football, fatwas, fascism: the surprising grassroots protests over a number of issues, ranging from racism to economic
truth about what drives extremism disparity. This comprehensively updated CORDIS Results Pack, including nine
in Europe entirely new projects, features some of the innovative EU-funded research that
helps us to better understand the major political issues of the day and provide
9 recommendations for policymakers, citizens and other organisations to better
Civil rights and wrongs: how data respond to the threats facing European democracy.
and democracy interact
The list of challenges faced by European democracy is a long one. The lingering impact of the
2008 financial crisis, with widespread economic distress and austerity, led to growing public discontent
11 over inequality, stagnant living standards and social injustice.
Studying Hong Kong’s demand for
The migration crisis of 2015 following the Syrian civil war, which led to the highest levels of displacement
democracy
ever recorded, exacerbated discontent among European citizens over issues of fairness and cultural
integration. A feeling of dislocation from the national discourse intertwined with pre-existing economic
13 anxieties and fuelled both left- and right-wing populist movements.
Set to private? The political challenges
posed by social media Rapid technological change, particularly the growth of social media, has radically altered democratic
participation over the past few years. Citizens are now just as likely to receive their news from Facebook
15 or Twitter as from traditional print and broadcast media. This has boosted opportunities for citizen
engagement on digital platforms and also fostered transparency, but nevertheless contributed to
Understanding political choice in Europe, the spread of disinformation and ‘fake news’ that undermine informed debate, and thus the very
post-war to pandemic foundations of liberal democracy.
18 COVID-19: The latest ingredient

A toolbox for integration: making The arrival of COVID-19 in Europe caused unprecedented hardship for citizens, with restrictions on
differentiation work for the EU freedom of movement and the right to assemble and demonstrate, as well as the postponement of
electoral processes. These profound changes to how we live, work, study, socialise and travel, will have
20 lasting impacts in our society.
From victim to suspect: an ethical However, with vaccination programmes underway, a return to normality is in sight. An EU recovery
perspective on DNA data sharing package that promotes the green and digital transitions encourages innovative developments that will
reinvigorate European democracy. How EU, national and local leaders respond to the economic and
22 social distress left in the wake of COVID-19 will ultimately determine the course of European liberal
Charting the many paths to integration democracy in the 21st century.
with the EU
Lighting the way forward
24 These challenges have been met with innovative responses to strengthen democracy all over Europe.
Take for example the Conference on the Future of Europe. With its multilingual digital platform (launched
Strengthening democracy in a time of
in April 2021) and the citizens’ panels and plenary meetings that are taking place over several months,
populism
the Conference gives European citizens a greater say on what the EU does and how it works for them. It
is a unique opportunity for the EU to display how it can further evolve through constructive engagement
26 with its citizens, making European democracy more vibrant, interactive and relevant.
Algorithms are reshaping our newsreading
habits. Should we worry? Innovative, evidence-based research is vital to respond to the challenges faced by European democracy.
Policymakers do not act in a vacuum, but rely on robust data to make informed decisions. The EU’s
28 Horizon 2020 programme (and its successor, Horizon Europe) actively support social sciences and
humanities researchers who are passionate about understanding the causes of, and finding solutions
Populism’s threat to democracy in the EU to, the aforementioned challenges.
30 The research featured in this Pack covers many diverse issues including economic insecurity, cultural
and social integration, European identity, youth issues, radicalisation, technology, misinformation and
Strengthening the democratic fibre ‘fake news’, and even how the EU defends and promotes its values in the international diplomatic arena.
of the EU
There are no simple solutions to any of the challenges currently facing European democracy. Yet the EU
32 can and will rise to the task of defending and enriching its fundamental values and democratic systems.
The road ahead in a post-pandemic world will not be easy – but the fantastic research highlighted here
Building trust in politics through innovative
promises to shine a light towards a better future for all European citizens.
technology
CORDIS Results Pack on challenges to democracy in Europe
Insights into a complex and turbulent political climate
Who are EU? Forging

a cultural identity that
reflects modern Europe
Real cultural diversity is within reach in Europe, but there is still much work ahead to
completely move away from ethnonationalism. The CHIEF project provides a set of
recommendations to ensure that no form of cultural heritage is unaccounted for.
Europe prides itself on its cultural diversity. Yet, forms enable a more encompassing definition of ‘cultural literacy’ – our
of nationalism growing in many Member States call the understanding of the traditions, activities and history of our culture.
effectiveness of its approach into question. ‘Othering’ is far
from gone, cultural minorities thirst for recognition, and our
vision of culture, cultural literacy and heritage is still profoundly Post-ethnic culture
ethnonationalist.
“There are different factors challenging cultural diversity and
The EU-funded CHIEF (Cultural Heritage and Identities of Europe’s inclusion,” says Anton Popov, coordinator of the project and senior
Future) project has been shedding new light on this reality. By lecturer in Sociology at Aston University. “First, migrants are
working with young people experiencing exclusion across nine often treated as subjects of integration policies. Then, different
different countries (Croatia, Georgia, Germany, India, Latvia, cultures might be introduced through the medium of religion, or
Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom), it hopes to even a colonialist perspective of history.”
© Rawpixel.com, Shutterstock
3
He adds: “We also have very different meanings of diversity mostly among older citizens. The EU is also politically loaded and
across countries, and a post-ethnic foundation of national therefore very divisive, particularly since the 2008-2009 financial
culture. The latter has the adverse consequence of considering crisis. As Popov puts it: “Europe has become obsessed with
minorities and migrants as ‘in need of education’.” memory and history, to the point where cosmopolitan discourses
about its difficult past have now become part of new forms of
The project’s findings reveal the distance separating culturally mainstream nationalisms.”
dominant groups from migrants and minorities. The project team
demonstrated that young people often reproduce the status quo Here, an important recommendation of the project team is to
in terms of socio-economic positions, and that young people engage young people. Beyond providing recommendations for
tend to reproduce dichotomies and hierarchies that result in each country in the CHIEF consortium, the project team has
othering and exclusion. Even in organisations with culturally recently released a set of international policy recommendations.
inclusive agendas, homogeneity of These suggest that educational policies should extend the scope
membership might result in lack of of cultural learning to present culture in different ways and link
recognition of such groups’ real needs. it with everyday experiences, education and art. Meanwhile,
heritage conceptions need to move beyond inclusion towards
Europe has become To break this vicious circle, CHIEF has infusion.
obsessed with memory been focusing on young people as
and history. the ‘future in the making’, looking at In the EU, this means developing more meaningful and relatable
them from the angles of educational concepts of European belonging, such as the idea of Europe as
settings and informal human interactions. Even at the height of a source of cultural identity championing liberal values. Popov
the COVID-19 pandemic, the team organised intervention events believes such values need to be linked to cultural references
helping young people express their identities. These included beyond Europe while giving prominence to silenced and
the likes of street-art murals in Georgia, anti-racism workshops marginalised groups worldwide. With all this highly valuable
in Germany and an intercultural rap song and photobook in the input, there is little doubt that CHIEF will contribute to a new
United Kingdom. vision of cultural literacy in Europe and beyond.
CHIEF’s first and perhaps most radical recommendation is to

move away from our ethnonational understanding of culture
and diversity. “We could create a more diverse and inclusive
curriculum accounting for mixed culture and foregrounding the
decolonisation of knowledge. The idea is that we all do culture,
and that national educational policies should move away from
deficiency models,” Popov explains. P R OJ E C T
CHIEF – Cultural Heritage and Identities
of Europe’s Future
The challenges of European
C O O R D I N AT E D B Y
values Aston University in the United Kingdom
Beyond rethinking national identities, the project also FUNDED UNDER

acknowledges the fact that European identity also faces Horizon 2020-SOCIETY
challenges of its own. In all nine countries, identification with
Europe in cultural terms was found to be weak and subordinated C O R D I S FA C T S H E E T
to national and/or ethnic/regional identities. cordis.europa.eu/project/id/770464
Overall, the EU’s values of openness and freedom tend to clash P R OJ E C T W E B S I T E

with narratives that oppose it to national and ethnic identity, chiefprojecteu.com
4
The secret robot armies

fighting to undermine
democracy
Governments and special interest groups are using networks of automated accounts
on social media to sow dissent, spread disinformation and subvert their opponents.
Funded through a European Research Council (ERC) grant, Researchers led by principal investigator Philip Howard
the COMPROP (Computational Propaganda: Investigating produced a codified definition of ‘junk news’ that referred
the Impact of Algorithms and Bots on Political Discourse to deliberately produced misleading, deceptive and incorrect
in Europe) project set out to investigate networks of propaganda purporting to be real news. The team examined
automated social media accounts, and their role in shaping millions of posts on social media to see how these messages
public opinion. were produced and disseminated.
© Graeme Dawes, Shutterstock
5
Though initially focused on Twitter, the team at the University country, swaying 10 % of the electorate can have a resounding
of Oxford’s Programme on Democracy and Technology found impact.
computational propaganda – algorithms put to work for a
political agenda – on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, YouTube, Howard explains that these campaigns are particularly bad for
and even dating app Tinder. the role of women and minorities in public life: “Feminists, female
journalists, and female politicians get a nasty form of attack
“We didn’t expect over the course of the project the problem would and disinformation on social media. It’s much easier to drive a
grow as bad as it did,” notes Howard. “We can see how some woman out of public life than a man.”
governments, lobbyists, the far right and white supremacists all
use these to manipulate democracies.”
Government intervention
The COMPROP project focused heavily on COVID misinformation,
which Howard notes came chiefly from three sources: Russian Howard says more effort is needed to contain these propaganda
media, Chinese media, and American president Donald Trump. networks. “We’re past the point of self-regulation by industry.
While Trump’s disinformation was tied to domestic American If tech firms stepped up, and governments imposed fines on
politics, Russia and China pushed three broad themes intended politicians who commission these programmes, that set of
for foreign audiences. initiatives would go a long way.”
“The first was that democracy can’t help us, elected leaders Yet even identifying which social media accounts are automated
are too weak to make decisions,” says Howard. “The second has proven difficult. “One bot writer in Germany said his team
message was that Russian or Chinese scientists were going to would read our methodology papers and adjust their algorithms
get the vaccine first, and the third was that Russia or China was to just below our catchment,” remarks Howard. “We were in a
leading on humanitarian assistance efforts.” sort of dialogue with these programmers.”
The group were also awarded a proof of concept grant to develop

Under the influence the Junk News Aggregator, a tool which interactively displays
articles from unreliable sources as they spread on Facebook.
These misinformation campaigns predate the COVID-19
pandemic, however. “When Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was Howard and his team are now focused on how machine learning
shot down over Ukraine, there were multiple ridiculous stories technology will power a new generation of computational
of what transpired – that democracy advocates shot it down, that propaganda. “If someone can take your social media feed and
American troops shot it down, that a lost tank from WWII came behavioural data, and come up with political messages you’ll
out of the forest and shot it down,” adds Howard. By laying out respond to, they’ll do that,” he concludes. “This is the next great
multiple conflicting stories, authoritarian regimes prevent their threat.”
citizens from knowing which narrative to respond to.
P R OJ E C T
COMPROP – Computational Propaganda:
Investigating the Impact of Algorithms
We didn’t expect over the course of the project and Bots on Political Discourse in Europe
the problem would grow as bad as it did.
HOSTED BY
University of Oxford in the United Kingdom
This strategy was eventually turned outward, to undermine
social movements and destabilise foreign nations. “Sometimes FUNDED UNDER
campaigns are about a specific crisis or person, but often the Horizon 2020-ERC
goal is to undermine trust in courts, police, journalism, science,
or government at large,” explains Howard. C O R D I S FA C T S H E E T
cordis.europa.eu/project/id/648311
He adds that the target audience for these bots is perhaps only
10-20 % of the population, typically disaffected, conservative- P R OJ E C T W E B S I T E
leaning adults who are politically active. In a highly polarised demtech.oii.ox.ac.uk
6
Football, fatwas, fascism:

the surprising truth about
what drives extremism
in Europe
What does the breeding ground for radicalisation look like? How do young people
react to these influences? How do Islamism and extreme right movements influence
each other? The DARE project is investigating these and many other questions.
© Alexandros Michailidis, Shutterstock
Radicalisation has been a major political issue over the last right movements threatening the very foundations of our
two decades. In Europe, it is essentially divided into two main multicultural and open societies. These two groups are often
forms. The first is Islamism and the second – which has become opposed, although they are assumed to share the same tendency
more prevalent in the last five years – is pernicious extreme for violence.
7
There is still much we don’t know, or we misconceive, about We’re facing a lack of empirical research into
the breeding grounds of these two forms of radicalisation. radicalisation environments, and a lack of
“We’re facing a lack of empirical research into radicalisation
knowledge of why, within these environments,
environments, and a lack of knowledge of why, within these
environments, most young people do not radicalise,” explains
most young people do not radicalise.
Hilary Pilkington, professor of Sociology at the University of
Manchester and coordinator of the DARE (Dialogue About
Radicalisation and Equality) project. “We wanted to close these some kind of existential threat to one’s group, requiring action to
gaps as well as influence the debate on how radicalisation defend that group.” Other factors include the feelings of isolation,
processes interact to produce cumulative effects.” disconnect and marginalisation as soon as it appears that there
are no alternative ways to seek redress.
To do so, the project team conducted ethnographic studies
of Islamist and right-wing extremist environments. “Our Perhaps the most surprising project outcome is the degree of
19 completed studies generated just under 400 semi-structured openness to dialogue demonstrated by interviewees. Pilkington
interviews with a total of 369 young people from 12 countries. believes this raises important questions for future research, such
The milieus selected varied significantly – from a French prison as whether political radicalism and extremism are as clearly
to a self-proclaimed ‘football fanatics’ milieu in Poland – and associated with a ‘close-minded’ disposition and a resistance to
findings in each case study report are rich and complex in their dialogic engagement as current literature suggests.
own right,” says Pilkington.
Over the next few months, DARE will focus on the development
The project demonstrates that socio-economic inequality of two educational toolkits, as well as research briefings and an
does not consistently predict radicalisation. It depends on the edited volume. Pilkington hopes these will feed into the growing
country, the ideological type of radicalisation and the form of recognition of radicalisation as a societal rather than purely
radicalisation (cognitive or behavioural). security-related phenomenon. Eventually, she says young people
should be provided with the means to play a meaningful role in
community-led initiatives to challenge hate and prejudice, from
Violence as an exception wherever it originates.
to the rule
The interviewed actors rarely see themselves as extremists. They
do, however, identify both other groups and some people within
their own milieu as too extreme, which confirms the relational P R OJ E C T
nature of extremism. DARE – Dialogue About Radicalisation
and Equality
“An important research finding is that this self-dissociation of
research participants from extremism is not just empty rhetoric. C O O R D I N AT E D B Y
Milieu actors, with only a few exceptions, rejected the use of University of Manchester in the United Kingdom
violence to achieve political goals,” Pilkington adds. “While they
strongly defended the right to hold and express any opinion, F U N D E D U N D E R
they believed that the imposition of views on others was where Horizon 2020-SOCIETY
extremism began.”
C O R D I S FA C T S H E E T
In practice, few actors had reached the level of violent extremism. cordis.europa.eu/project/id/725349
Pilkington explains that radical actions emerge “when the
concerns underpinning grievances such as perceived injustice, P R OJ E C T W E B S I T E
persecution or the feeling of being silenced are felt to present dare-h2020.org
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Civil rights and

wrongs: how data
and democracy interact
Long subject to invasive and even oppressive applications of big data, citizens are
now turning these tools on governments and big business. By tracing the fine
line between useful data and abusive surveillance, the DATACTIVE project
depicts under-the-radar conflicts that could reshape society as we know it.
Literature tells us that ‘data is the new oil’. Businesses need it from a research perspective, the connection between citizenship,
to know more about our tastes and purchasing habits, politicians political participation and big data remained relatively unexplored
want it to win elections, and governments count on it – most before the ERC-funded DATACTIVE (Data activism: The politics of
often – for the greater good. But how about civil society? big data according to civil society) project kicked off.
For the past decade, data journalism and human rights “DATACTIVE combined in-depth interviews with 250 activists,
investigations using online data have demonstrated the value human rights defenders and digital rights advocates with field
of big data for non-governmental and non-market actors. Yet, observations in both real life and cyberspace, as well as data
© PopTika, Shutterstock
9
mining techniques. The idea was to capture what people think Citizen action
and say about data and data infrastructure, what they do
with them, and how algorithms mediate both,” says principal Meanwhile, DATACTIVE could observe how data transparency
investigator Stefania Milan, associate professor of New Media and open data have become a currency in the fight against
and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam. the pandemic. Citizens in countries like Brazil use it to develop
counter-narratives in the face of government inaction, while
The project focused on three knowledge gaps: the lack of some grassroots actors and NGOs increasingly resist the
understanding of civil society engagement with data, the link diffusion of facial recognition in society. The ‘Reclaim your
between resistance to and advocacy for big data, and the face’ petition in the EU is the culmination of these efforts.
collective and software dimension of activism involving the
use of data. “Eventually, we hope our project will encourage more people
to ‘play with data’. We would like different data activist
initiatives to explore complementarities and to spread
COVID-19 techno-solutionism awareness of the problems and
opportunities of datafication.
The project team exposed the role of data as a mediator in This might help leverage
digital activism. It can either be a ‘stake’ – an object of political good civil society practices for
struggle – or be mobilised as part of ‘repertoires’ or modular knowledge and public policy
We created a
tools for political struggle. In this sense, several interesting agendas,” Milan says. multilingual blog
trends have been identified. that investigates how
Whilst DATACTIVE has come to the virus is experienced
The project took a close look at societal trends such as open an end, research will continue by individuals and
data, resistance to surveillance, open-source intelligence, 5G, under various other projects.
communities on
and the effects of Facebook personalisation algorithms on the These include plans to develop
Dutch national election in March 2021. Milan’s team identified technology standards for
the margins.
a widening divide between those who are visible in official 5G networks that respect
records, and the ‘data poor’ who are not. human rights by design, development of software to study
personalisation algorithms, as well as further research
This was acutely manifested during the COVID-19 pandemic, on technological innovations increasing discrimination
for example, as marginalised communities such as unregistered and injustice.
people and undocumented migrants struggled to access care.
“We created a multilingual blog that investigates how the virus
is experienced by individuals and communities on the margins,
while criticising what we call the ‘techno-solutionism’ which
characterised the response to the pandemic,” explains Milan.
DATACTIVE investigated how COVID-19 contributed to ‘lowering

the guard’ with respect to privacy risks. The diffusion of a P R OJ E C T
new mode of governance where contact tracing apps, thermal DATACTIVE – Data activism: The politics of big
facial recognition cameras and educational platforms have data according to civil society
progressively taken over functions usually reserved for
administrations and governmental entities is particularly HOSTED BY
worrying, according to Milan. University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands
“It negatively impacts citizen sovereignty over their own F U N D E D U N D E R

data while increasing inequality and discrimination. The Horizon 2020-ERC
EU vaccination certificate is the culmination of this trend:
it legitimises inequalities between countries and people by C O R D I S FA C T S H E E T
formalising ways to distinguish between the vaccinated and cordis.europa.eu/project/id/639379
unvaccinated, and eventually excluding the latter. This is
particularly visible in the southern hemisphere where access P R OJ E C T W E B S I T E
to vaccines is very limited.” data-activism.net
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Studying Hong Kong’s

demand for democracy
Pro-democracy movements have been a constant in global politics over the past two
decades, from ‘colour revolutions’ in former Soviet republics to the Arab Spring
of the early 2010s. EU-funded researchers watched it evolve in real time in
the Chinese territory.
© coloursinmylife, Shutterstock
The EU-funded DemandDemoc (Demand for Democracy) Hong Kong proved to be the perfect case study. “At the
project fundamentally seeks to understand the role of beginning of our project in 2017, Hong Kong was experiencing
personal preferences, beliefs and social interactions in an almost unique political tension,” explains the project’s
spurring an individual to take part in a pro-democracy principal investigator, Davide Cantoni from Ludwig Maximilian
movement. University of Munich.
11
The Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, stipulated that or political preferences of individuals. “However, individuals
elections would take place through ‘universal suffrage’, but it attending a protest are more likely to take part in future
never specified when universal suffrage should be achieved. protests as well. The reason for this sustained political
Since 1997, citizens of Hong Kong have protested every 1 July engagement lies in the formation of new networks with
to remind their government and Beijing about the unfulfilled politically active friends,” he adds.
promises of the Basic Law.
From Hong Kong

to pastures new
Our initial intuition proved to be correct: that Hong
Kong would prove a fruitful testing ground Due to the 2020 National Security Law, DemandDemoc has
for theories about how the demand for democracy been unable to continue its research in Hong Kong. “But I am
happy and proud that our initial intuition proved to be correct:
is articulated and organised.
that Hong Kong would prove a fruitful testing ground for
theories about how the demand for democracy is articulated
Despite the unfulfilled pledge for full democratic participation and organised,” says Cantoni.
in elections, the people of Hong Kong have enjoyed many
other key civil, social and economic rights, such as freedom He and his team are interested to test their findings in other
of expression, an independent judiciary and a free press. settings. “DemandDemoc also highlighted how important
“This again has added to Hong Kong’s uniqueness because it is for us to study ‘critical junctures’ such as revolutions
it’s normally the case that states without universal suffrage and protests in real time through surveys and fieldwork,”
are much more autocratic,” states Cantoni. he concludes. “Doing so allows us to not only understand
our contemporary world better, but also better inform our
reading of history.”
Some unexpected insights
The ERC-supported DemandDemoc project halted their direct
work in Hong Kong at the outset of the 2019 mass protests
but had already arrived at some interesting and unexpected
insights into what influenced an individual’s decision to
engage in a pro-democracy movement. P R OJ E C T
DemandDemoc – Demand for Democracy
“We find that individuals consistently tend to act as
‘substitutes’: they are more likely to attend a protest march HOSTED BY
when they expect attendance to be low and are less likely Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany
to attend if they expect a high turnout,” Cantoni says. “This
finding is particularly surprising because a large class of FUNDED UNDER
collective behaviour models would predict the exact opposite.” Horizon 2020-ERC
Additionally, DemandDemoc saw that attendance at a protest C O R D I S FA C T S H E E T

event in itself does not fundamentally modify the beliefs cordis.europa.eu/project/id/716837
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Set to private?
The political challenges
posed by social media
Policymakers must answer to the electorate and at the same time handle delicate closed-
door negotiations among themselves. The DIPLOFACE project aims to investigate
how the growth in online communication has impacted these competing aspects of
political life, especially in the context of COVID-19.
When talking about the ‘new normal’ of post-pandemic life, we But the truth is this transition has been a long time in the making,
generally refer to working from home and using social media and and it also affects diplomats and policymakers. Long before 2020,
videoconferencing software to keep in touch with the wider world. digital tools had begun challenging the old diplomatic ways.
© RoBird, Shutterstock
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The DIPLOFACE (Diplomatic Face-Work – between confidential how leaders and diplomats handle the sudden and unforeseen
negotiations and public display) project, funded by the ERC, entanglement between private diplomatic negotiations and the
focuses on this game-changing evolution. public. We do this by combining various methods and gathering
How did social media impact traditional different kinds of empirical data: field work, direct observations,
politics? Do efforts from policymakers to interviews and analysis of millions of social media updates,”
The use of social present themselves proactively in tweets Adler-Nissen notes.
media is a interfere with closed-door negotiations
struggle not only and their culture of restraint and secrecy?
to present What about the digitalisation of Brussels’ Information overflow
diplomacy before and after COVID-19?
national selves, In practice, social media and video meetings hardly deliver on
but also to define It would be tempting to answer the second their promise of more accessibility and transparency. The team
the ideals of question in the affirmative. In the United has also found that local interpretations and use patterns of
the diplomatic States, president Donald Trump became social media platforms differ considerably.
profession. infamous for his tweets, often catching
international partners off guard. But Rebecca While some practitioners embrace new communication tools
Adler-Nissen, DIPLOFACE principal investigator, depicts a much to build up their profiles as competent negotiators, others grow
more subtle reality. tired of the constant communication, information overflow and
breaches of confidentiality. “More fundamentally, the digital
“Trump’s tweets are symptomatic of some aspects of online revolution questions the norms and standards of the diplomatic
political behaviour, but the online political world is as multifaceted profession. The use of social media is a struggle not only to
as its offline counterpart. Diplomatic protocol and self-restraint present national selves, but also to define the ideals of the
are not suddenly replaced by aggressive posts in caps lock: diplomatic profession,” Adler-Nissen notes.
they continue to play their role also online,” the University of
Copenhagen professor explains. Adler-Nissen’s work now continues with a focus on how
international political life responds to the digital transition, and
whether this transition creates inequalities between countries.
Striking a balance “I think I will never leave this project, even when it formally ends.
DIPLOFACE is the most intellectually stimulating and challenging
What social media politics does is to challenge the balance academic experience I have had so far and there are still many
between effective international cooperation and public aspects of diplomacy left to explore and explain,” she concludes.
legitimacy. Rolling 24/7 live media coverage and the mass
adoption of emails, videos and updates, coupled with demands
for more transparency in world politics, means policymakers have
to walk an increasingly thin line between both aspects of politics.
COVID-19 is a great example in this regard. DIPLOFACE studied P R OJ E C T

how the pandemic has affected diplomacy throughout restrictions, DIPLOFACE – Diplomatic Face-Work – between
social distancing and the sudden turn to online meetings and confidential negotiations and public display
videoconferences. They found that the change wasn’t so sudden
after all. “Sociologist Karin Knorr Cetina calls this the ‘synthetic HOSTED BY
situation’. We show that most diplomatic meetings were already University of Copenhagen in Denmark
digitally mediated (or synthetic) pre-COVID. What’s interesting is
to see how technological change affects diplomacy by creating F U N D E D U N D E R
both professional tensions and personal resistance in synthetic Horizon 2020-ERC
situations,” Adler-Nissen explains.
Surprisingly, this relationship is still poorly understood. Closing cordis.europa.eu/project/id/680102
this gap requires observation of the negotiation process ‘live’
inside the engine room of diplomacy, while accounting for all P R OJ E C T W E B S I T E
external actors. “Our research investigates for the first time politicalscience.ku.dk/research/projects/diploface
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Understanding political
choice in Europe,
post-war to pandemic
Choice lies at the heart of what distinguishes democratic systems from non-democratic
ones. The EUDEMOS project, funded by the ERC, examined the evolution of political
choice in Europe and the implications today for citizen engagement.
The last two decades have seen increasing political fragmentation democracy and the rise of parties that have challenged – in
and polarisation, dropping levels of citizen satisfaction in some countries quite successfully – the established order.
© Zenzen, Shutterstock
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“Like disruptive entrepreneurs, these challenger parties offer When the pandemic first swept through Europe in March 2020,
new policies and defy the dominance of established party dominant mainstream parties were gifted an opportunity
brands,” says Sara Hobolt, the principal investigator of the to showcase their competence and long experience in
project and professor of Government at the London School governance, and this boosted their popularity, at least in
of Economics (LSE). the short term.
“European citizens rallied around their political leaders and

The paradox of political choice institutions, at the expense of the populist challenger parties,”
Hobolt explains. These groups failed to excite electorates
The decline of mainstream parties means Europeans have with their usual policy staples, such as immigration, because
more choice than ever when it comes to the menu of party citizens were now prioritising a competent response to the
options offered by their national political system. In the last health crisis.
15 years Germany has evolved from being dominated by
four ‘traditional’ parties to six, and at one point the radical So, will the pandemic be the death knell of the populist
right Alternative für Deutschland was the third largest party political phenomena that we’ve experienced over the last
in the Bundestag. decade? “Don’t be so sure,” Hobolt says. “It seems highly
unlikely that the demand for these parties will simply dry
“On top of this, there has also been a rise in the number and up, especially as the pandemic has triggered a deep global
variety of issues on the public agenda, such as immigration recession that populist challengers could eventually exploit.”
and the environment,” continues Hobolt. “Citizens also have
many more opportunities to express their political voice, for
example in referendums. Challenger parties have in particular Punishing misdemeanours
been very innovative in mobilising these issues to obtain
electoral success.” Some of her most recent work includes a large-scale survey
that tested whether citizens punish ‘bad’ politicians, and
Paradoxically, political choice has become more constrained especially illiberal behaviour, such as lack of respect for
as nations have become increasingly interdependent. political opponents, opposition to freedom of the press, and
“Integration has given citizens more democratic opportunities, opposition to an independent judiciary.
such as European Parliament elections. Yet it also implies
that national governments in Europe operate under the
growing constraints of European integration that limit the
choices they can offer citizens and the policy instruments Voters punish bad behaviour, but do not
they can use,” she adds. distinguish between ‘illiberal’ tendencies
and more general misdemeanours, such as
The politics of COVID-19 not answering constituents’ emails.
EUDEMOS (Constrained Democracy: Citizens’ Responses “We found that voters do indeed punish such behaviours, but
to Limited Political Choice in the European Union) has do not distinguish between ‘illiberal’ tendencies and more
documented that European voters increasingly resemble general misdemeanours, such as not answering constituents’
critical consumers rather than party loyalists. “The political emails or claiming too much in expenses,” Hobolt says.
sphere has become more market-like,” continues Hobolt. “And
this can also provide some interesting insights about political The team also investigated the impact of criticism from other
choice and the current COVID-19 crisis.” politicians. Hobolt notes that voters responded much more
16
strongly if the criticism came from politicians belonging to P R OJ E C T

the same party as the wrongdoer, rather than the opposition. EUDEMOS – Constrained Democracy: Citizens’
Responses to Limited Political Choice in the
Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, EUDEMOS was extended European Union
by a further 6 months. “Conducting research during the
pandemic has been very difficult, especially when it comes HOSTED BY
to research that involves direct contact with participants,” London School of Economics and Political Science
Hobolt explains. “This allowed me to transform the final in the United Kingdom
major aspect of the project – a comprehensive laboratory
experiment on how political attitudes are formed – from an F U N D E D U N D E R
in-person to an online setting.” Horizon 2020-ERC
Overall, it’s clear that EUDEMOS has been a joy to work on C O R D I S FA C T S H E E T

for Hobolt. “It has been an immense privilege to work on cordis.europa.eu/project/id/647835
such an important research project with such excellent young
scholars, especially alongside such monumental real-time P R OJ E C T W E B S I T E
events, such as Brexit, the election of Donald Trump and now lse.ac.uk/european-institute/research/eudemos
of course the COVID-19 crisis,” she concludes. “I have many
plans to continue this line of research in the years to come!”
17
A toolbox for integration:

making differentiation
work for the EU
The complexity of the EU project necessitates a degree of flexibility in Member States’
cooperation. The EU IDEA team is examining whether the response to crises such as
Brexit should be more freedom, or greater commitment.
© Sensay, Shutterstock
Differentiated integration grants Member States flexibility carte, differentiation can take on many forms, and has often
in the speed and extent to which they adopt some EU proven controversial. Does differentiation really drive further
policies, smoothing their transition into the bloc. Referred integration, or does it fail to sufficiently challenge recalcitrant
to as variable geometry, multi-speed Europe or Europe à la states?
18
To bring insight to this polarised debate, the EU-funded EU In the field of foreign and security policy, EU countries have
IDEA (EU Integration and Differentiation for Effectiveness and long been engaging in a range of informal practices of
Accountability) project is assessing how differentiation can differentiation, such as regional groupings, contact and lead
best contribute to making the EU more effective, cohesive groups, as well as various defence initiatives.
and democratic.
“When it has adhered to common EU values and positions,
“Differentiation has been viewed either as a poison or as a differentiated cooperation has had largely positive outcomes,”
panacea for the EU. As a matter of fact, it is neither,” says Pirozzi notes, citing the nuclear negotiations with Iran as a
Nicoletta Pirozzi, head of the EU, Politics and Institutions case in point.
Programme at the Institute of
International Affairs (IAI) in
Italy, which leads the project. Staying relevant post-Brexit
The reality of Brexit suggests
“It is more helpful to look at Differentiation also has an external dimension: the extension of
a more hard-line approach differentiation as a toolbox EU rules, policies and modes of cooperation to third countries.
towards member and for accommodating diversity, Brexit represents an entirely new phenomenon in this context.
non-member countries. whether through major “Brexit clearly impacts existing modes of differentiation. We
long-term projects like the found, through a dedicated Observatory on Brexit, that the
Economic and Monetary Union or as a flexible means to cope reality of Brexit suggests a more hard-line approach towards
with crises and political divergence.” member and non-member countries, sending them both the
message that membership matters,” Pirozzi remarks.
Differentiation is neither inherently integrative nor inherently
disintegrative, Pirozzi explains: “It is what Member States and The project’s findings suggest that the EU needs to highlight its
EU bodies make of it. Thus, it entails opportunities as well role as a relevant framework for dealing with global challenges
as risks, which EU IDEA aims to uncover and assess.” To do that cannot be addressed effectively at the national level,
so, EU IDEA focuses on the politics and the organisational she concludes.
forms of differentiation, examining the processes leading
to different modalities of differentiation, as well as on their
implementation.
Common values
The project team is seeking to identify how much and what P R OJ E C T
form of differentiation is conducive to European integration, EU IDEA – EU Integration and Differentiation for
and when differentiation should be avoided to prevent Effectiveness and Accountability
incoherence, political tensions and disintegration. This exercise
will enable them to set out clear objectives and criteria for C O O R D I N AT E D B Y
countries’ participation in differentiated integration projects. Institute of International Affairs in Italy
They will also review the role of EU institutions in this context
and suggest strategies for improving citizens’ participation. F U N D E D U N D E R
Horizon 2020-SOCIETY
Differentiation has been a part of the EU’s modes of action
since the bloc’s early days. One of the most recent examples C O R D I S FA C T S H E E T
is the Banking Union, initiated in 2012 in response to the cordis.europa.eu/project/id/822622
financial crisis. Initially limited to the euro area, the single
supervision mechanism has since been extended to non-euro P R OJ E C T W E B S I T E
area countries Bulgaria and Croatia, on their request. euidea.eu
19
From victim to suspect:

an ethical perspective
on DNA data sharing
The transnational exchange of DNA data between EU countries is generally
considered key to solving crime. Researchers fear it could lead to new forms
of suspicion and discrimination.
The depiction of crime in movies and TV shows assigns a The EXCHANGE (Forensic Geneticists and the Transnational
singularly simple and efficient role to DNA evidence: it helps Exchange of DNA data in the EU: Engaging Science with Social
the police put criminals behind bars and frees innocent citizens Control, Citizenship and Democracy) research project studied
from suspicion by infallibly producing reliable matches from a how these uses could effectively drive genetic surveillance –
database. the systematic monitoring of individuals or groups based on
their genetic specificities in order to detect or reconstruct
The reality, as often, is a lot more complex. The use of forensic crimes. The project delivered tools and data to improve our
genetics in law enforcement has far-reaching ethical implications understanding of these mechanisms, and outlined concrete
due to the nature of DNA data and the way this data is collected, solutions for addressing the challenges to democratic societies
exchanged and analysed. they create.
© Immersion Imagery, Shutterstock
20
Opt-in consent general public, confuse the idealised portrayal of DNA evidence
on television with the actual capabilities of forensic genetics,”
The starting point for the EXCHANGE project, which received Machado points out.
funding from the ERC, is the so-called Prüm framework. The
technological system enables the automated exchange of DNA “This so-called ‘CSI effect’, together with a lack of literacy
profiles between EU countries. on what is involved in the interpretation of DNA evidence, is
considered by many forensic geneticists to be the major obstacle
These exchanges raise questions with regard to privacy, equality in their task of communicating on the results of DNA analysis.”
before justice and the presumption of innocence, explains Helena
Machado, dean of the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Objectively assessing the success and efficiency of the Prüm
Minho in Portugal and principal investigator of the EXCHANGE system is made difficult by a lack of transparency, she notes.
project. While the transnational exchanges under the Prüm framework
are generally regarded as instrumental to solving crimes in the
“The transnational exchange of DNA is not only concerned with EU, the lack of publicly accessible information makes it difficult
data related to potential criminals such as convicted persons, to assess these claims.
suspects, and crime stains, but also includes data associated with
civil identification purposes – missing persons, their relatives, To achieve greater accountability, the project team suggests
or unidentified remains,” she says. “The inclusion of victims developing oversight bodies which actively engage with citizens
in criminal DNA databases can generate matches with other and other stakeholders outside the forensic arena. They also call
unsolved crimes, in which case the victim becomes a suspect. for an ethically informed debate addressing the reliability, utility
Therefore, victims who are alive, like other volunteers, should be and legitimacy of the system.
informed and asked to give their consent.”
Victims, like other volunteers, should be

P R OJ E C T
informed and asked to give their consent.
EXCHANGE – Forensic Geneticists and the
Transnational Exchange of DNA data in the
Another issue is related to the differences between EU countries EU: Engaging Science with Social Control,
in the way data is collected, categorised and shared. For instance, Citizenship and Democracy
data on convicted offenders will cover very different realities in
different countries: “While Germany also stores and exchanges HOSTED BY
DNA data on offenders convicted for crimes such as burglary, University of Minho in Portugal
Portugal only exchanges data on offenders convicted for more
serious crimes such as homicide and robbery with violence.” FUNDED UNDER
Horizon 2020-ERC
CSI effect C O R D I S FA C T S H E E T
cordis.europa.eu/project/id/648608
In addition to these concerns, efforts to clarify the role and
limitations of DNA evidence are hampered by its depiction in P R OJ E C T W E B S I T E
the media. “Members of the criminal justice system, and the exchange.ics.uminho.pt
21
Charting the many paths

to integration with the EU
A process that allows Member States to adopt EU rules at their own speed has
produced a complex and evolving state of regulatory alignment. A pioneering data set
captures this multifaceted progress to integration, including which policies proved
the most difficult to embrace.
© ESB Professional, Shutterstock
For a variety of reasons, nations joining the EU may decide to comprehensive data set tracking all instances of DI in EU treaties
integrate more slowly in certain areas. The concept of differentiated and EU legislation from the Treaty of Rome in 1958 to 2020.
integration (DI) covers formal and informal arrangements for policy
opt-outs as well as the differences, or discretionary aspects, “The European Union today is characterised by diversities that
associated with putting EU policy into practice. run deep and it must find ways of managing and governing that.
One way to addressing diversity is DI, as it enables the EU to
To help policymakers get a handle on what differentiation exists integrate further,” says Brigid Laffan, one of the co-directors of
and how it has evolved, the EU-supported InDivEU (Integrating the InDivEU project based at the European University Institute
Diversity in the European Union) project has created a in Italy.
22
Economy and identity Mapping integration

There are two forms of DI: internal differentiation, which is “The data set is an authoritative one-stop source on the
where Member States do not participate in all EU policy regimes, development of DI over 50 years and thus invaluable to
and external differentiation, which involves third countries policymakers as it captures absolute numbers of DI and trends,”
participating selectively. It’s a complex area with a range of Laffan adds.
differentiation types and durations.
It shows that the instances of DI in EU treaties and legislation
The application of DI falls into two main categories: economic grew significantly after the 2004 enlargement, when 10 new
limitations that may render Member States unable to participate Member States joined. The data set also shows that internal
in all policy regimes, and ideological differences that may make DI is multi-speed: two thirds of examples have already expired,
them unwilling to participate in all EU policy regimes. while others persist.
The project’s data set shows that Denmark has the largest This is important as it means that most instances of DI are
number of opt-outs, and that France and Germany, the two big, time-bound, and that Member States eventually come on board.
‘core’ countries of the EU, tend not to resort to DI. However, the remaining one third relates to major policy fields,
such as the adoption of the euro. “In this case the differentiation
“Willing new Member States that were excluded from several has become entrenched in response to the euro area crisis,”
EU policies initially have been able to join the EU ‘core’ in a Laffan explains. The data suggest that DI has contributed to
reasonable period,” explains Frank Schimmelfennig, who also European integration by making it easier for key sticking points
co-directed the project. to be forestalled.
The InDivEU also gathered policymakers, civil servants,

academics, journalists and other representatives from seven EU
Member States for a series of Stakeholder Forums in selected
EU capitals. These workshops P R OJ E C T
generated key insights on the InDivEU – Integrating Diversity in the European
challenges and opportunities Union
of DI.
The data set is an C O O R D I N AT E D B Y
authoritative one-stop The information collected by European University Institute in Italy
source on the development InDivEU provides important
of differentiated integration insights into the governance of FUNDED UNDER
the EU. The project’s message Horizon 2020-SOCIETY
over 50 years.
for policymakers is that internal
DI works best for new Member C O R D I S FA C T S H E E T
States who may be adjusting to their accession, or at the launch cordis.europa.eu/project/id/822304
of new policies. It is less suitable when applied to European
values or financial redistribution across Member States. These P R OJ E C T W E B S I T E
last are of course the key challenges the EU faces. indiveu.eui.eu
23
Strengthening democracy
in a time of populism
The rise of populist movements has been a key political trend in Europe since the
2008-2009 financial crisis. The EU-funded PaCE project has been working to better
understand the negative tendencies of populist movements, as well why voters are
attracted to them in the first place.
Through an ambitious programme that took in historical and fine-grained, dynamic, context-sensitive and forward-looking
comparative analysis, the utilisation of machine learning response to negative populist tendencies) was able to arrive
and direct democracy labs with individual groups of citizens, at what project coordinator Bruce Edmonds considers its most
the project PaCE (Populism And Civic Engagement – a important result.
© HJBC, Shutterstock
24
“There are significant differences between what constitutes a There are significant differences between
‘populist’ party and what constitutes a ‘nativist’ party,” begins what constitutes a ‘populist’ party and
the director of the Centre for Policy Modelling at Manchester what constitutes a ‘nativist’ party.
Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. “On the surface
they look and sound extremely similar, but they work in different
ways.” This analysis is publicly available via the PaCE dashboard, a
tool that allows users to easily follow the stories and narrative
topics being discussed by populist movements online. The code
Divide and conquer that performed the filtering and analysis is freely available for
others to use.
In short, nativist beliefs can be summarised as the story of the
homeland versus outsiders/’others’, whilst populist parties focus
on the notion of a small, out-of-touch elite versus ‘ordinary Democracy labs in the COVID era
people’.
The final piece of the PaCE puzzle was a series of interactive
But it doesn’t stop at these core beliefs. Edmonds points out ‘democracy labs’ that were planned to take place in person
how the two tend to have very different experiences once they across several European countries to ascertain how voters truly
achieve political power. “Populists (for example La Lega in Italy) feel about many of the issues championed by populists and why
are much more successful and adaptive in government,” he they may be inclined to vote for populist parties.
says. “On the other hand, nativists (such as Austria’s Freedom
Party) tend not to last long, often implode quickly and/or get “COVID-19 forced us to move these online, but we still managed
mired in scandal.” to adapt and carry out some really fruitful public engagement
which I’m very proud of,” Edmonds concludes. “Right now, we’re
Whilst getting to the heart of this distinction was important looking at the results of these and summarising them in a way
for PaCE, they also wanted to showcase examples of where a that will be useful for policymakers.”
populist route could have been taken but was ultimately avoided.
“Iceland is a great example of this,” Edmonds explains. “Following
their major financial crisis (as part of the wider global financial
crisis), Icelandic voters could have easily taken a populist route.
Instead, they elected a very liberal government that worked hard
to put the public finances back in shape and return the economy P R OJ E C T
to positive growth.” PaCE – Populism And Civic Engagement –
a fine-grained, dynamic, context-sensitive and
forward-looking response to negative populist
Studying populism through AI tendencies
Alongside getting to the bottom of defining exactly what populist C O O R D I N AT E D B Y

movements are, are not, and their alternatives, PaCE was also Manchester Metropolitan University in the United
very interested in using digital tools to study, monitor and track Kingdom
populist movements in the online realm, especially on social
media. F U N D E D U N D E R
“We did a comprehensive manual analysis of many political
parties, specifically texts they use to promote their ideas and C O R D I S FA C T S H E E T
ideologies, and then this was passed to our Icelandic partners,” cordis.europa.eu/project/id/822337
says Edmonds. “They then developed machine learning
algorithms by using hundreds of keywords taken from this P R OJ E C T W E B S I T E
analysis and trained them to recognise these ideas.” popandce.eu
25
Algorithms are reshaping

our newsreading habits.
Should we worry?
Personalising digital media by customising ads and content to a user’s interests can
boost reader engagement and income streams for content providers. But what impact
does such selective provision of information have on democracy?
© metamorworks, Shutterstock
Most of us are familiar with information overload. But in an the impact the trend for personalisation has on the role of digital
increasingly polarised society, is the ability to read only what media in society and how that can be assessed.
interests us, from pre-selected sources, fanning the flames of
selective bias and shutting down our ability to see both sides? Who controls the algorithms behind the content we see? What rights
do users have? And how does personalisation impact on trust? The
The project PersoNews (Profiling and targeting news readers – project’s principal investigator, Natali Helberger, is the distinguished
implications for the democratic role of the digital media, user rights university professor of Law and Digital Technology, with a special
and public information policy), supported by the ERC, investigated focus on artificial intelligence, at the University of Amsterdam.
26
A double-edged sword the United Kingdom’s BBC, Europe’s RTL Group, the VRT in
Belgium, the German ZDF, along with newspapers, such as
“The public is keen to be better informed, both in terms of news the Dutch Volkskrant and Het Financieele Dagblad.
quality and relevance, and also because they are interested in
the diversity of recommendations,” notes Helberger. “Through our legal and policy research on user rights and
media regulation the project sought to contribute to ongoing
Many existing news recommender systems are designed to debates on responsible use of AI in the media. We have
show content that matches the user’s preferences and to shared our insights with policymakers, such as the European
keep them on the site for longer to create Commission, the Council of Europe
the opportunity for targeted advertising. and national governments in Canada,
Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and
“These are legitimate goals of a news The public is keen to be the United Kingdom,” says Helberger.
recommendation algorithm, but are short
better informed, both in
term, often informed by economic interests Among other outcomes, PersoNews
and not by a societal perspective. In other
terms of news quality and has published an award-winning
words, they are not embracing the role that relevance, and also because paper describing the democratic role
recommenders could play in a diverse and they are interested in the of news recommenders. This has led
healthy media landscape,” says Helberger. diversity of to invitations to do follow-up research
recommendations. and has been the basis for several
She explains that news recommendation projects looking into the ‘diverse
algorithms which do not simply serve up recommender’ model. It has also
more of ‘the same’, or try to increase clicks and advertising served as the basis for a Schloss Dagstuhl manifesto by a
sells only, have great potential. worldwide group of experts in the field.
The project brought together scholars from law, communication

science, journalism studies and artificial intelligence to create
a comprehensive view of news personalisation from the
perspective of users, newsrooms, society and the law.
The team devised surveys and focus group research to

understand how users perceive and experience news
personalisation, and what their concerns and expectations P R OJ E C T
are. To gain an insight into the providers’ priorities, PersoNews PersoNews – Profiling and targeting news
designed interviews with newsroom professionals. readers – implications for the democratic role
of the digital media, user rights and public
“The insights from that research informed our work on defining information policy
emerging journalistic algorithmic ethics,” Helberger adds.
“Empirical insights into users’ attitudes informed our legal HOSTED BY
exploration into the role of the law to address the concerns University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands
that users have, for example, issues surrounding personal
data and privacy. We also conceptualised ways of realising FUNDED UNDER
more diversity in recommendations.” Horizon 2020-ERC
Media manifesto cordis.europa.eu/project/id/638514
Throughout the project the team worked with journalists, P R OJ E C T W E B S I T E

editors and data scientists from organisations such as personalised-communication.net/personalised-news
27
Populism’s threat to
democracy in the EU
A wide-ranging investigation into populism finds that it hybridises with local culture
and politics to produce markedly different forms, informing the different strategies
needed to combat it.
Populist politicians have taken power in Czechia, Hungary and seeks to achieve, he adds: “There is no such thing as illiberal
Poland in recent years, and right-wing populist movements have democracy.”
gained momentum in France, Spain, the United Kingdom and
elsewhere. In Hungary and Poland, this has been accompanied by The EU-funded POPREBEL (Populist rebellion against
an erosion in the rule of law, and an increase in the persecution of modernity in 21st-century Eastern Europe: neo-traditionalism
minorities, greater authoritarianism and democratic backsliding. and neo-feudalism) project seeks to investigate this
phenomenon. University College London in the United Kingdom
“The threat is deadly,” says principal investigator Jan Kubik from leads a consortium of six other institutions across Europe, and
Rutgers University in the United States and University College involves more than 30 sub-projects examining the political,
London. Contrary to what Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán economic, social and cultural aspects of populism.
© Cinematographer, Shutterstock
28
Popular rebellion The combative rhetoric surrounding populism also lends itself to
violence against institutions, as evidenced by the 2021 attack
“Populism promises democracy to a specific group of people,” on the United States Capitol, warns Kubik. “Seeing your political
explains co-investigator Richard Mole, professor of Political competitors as mortal enemies produces the belief that one’s
Sociology at University College London. “Populist leaders are whole existence is in danger.
not seeking to represent or act in the best interests of all citizens.” We are sliding into what was
happening in Europe in the late
The pair say that the rise of populism can be attributed to a 20s and early 30s.”
combination of social and economic factors. “The universal There is no such thing as
factor is related to dramatic changes in culture, society The researchers say that more illiberal democracy.
and politics, and the move away from traditional ways of education is needed to instil in
understanding sexual roles and family models,” says Kubik. citizens a better understanding of
The resentment of people hit by this cultural shift was then their rights and responsibilities in liberal democracy. “I hate to
ignited by the 2008 economic crisis. say this, being born under communism, but when the collapse
of liberal democracy becomes a real possibility, we may need
POPREBEL found populist tendencies interact with local to censor more radical voices, as happened with Trump in the
politics and culture to produce different systems. The pair United States,” remarks Kubik.
describe Hungary under Orbán as a prime example of the neo-
feudal system, in which economic activity is tightly intertwined However, Mole predicts that the tide will eventually turn on
with politics. populist politicians. “Populism has been shown to be a vote
winner, but eventually all populists have to make good on
Populism in Poland is strongly influenced by a nationalist Catholic promises of sunlit uplands. When they don’t, people will look
identity, while in Czechia, there exists technocratic populism, elsewhere.”
which is less myth-loaded and symbolically overcharged as
other forms.
LGBT persecution P R OJ E C T
POPREBEL – Populist rebellion against
The rise in populism has led to increased persecution of women, modernity in 21st-century Eastern Europe: neo-
migrants and LGBT citizens. Because of the majoritarian traditionalism and neo-feudalism
understanding of democracy, “The voices of minorities are not
heard, and they are presented as enemies of the people,” notes C O O R D I N AT E D B Y
Mole. “This legitimises violence against people who are different.” University College London in the United Kingdom
The duo adds that populism goes hand in hand with a discrediting FUNDED UNDER
of science. “Liberal democracy puts a lot of demands on its Horizon 2020-SOCIETY
citizens, who need to learn how to think critically,” adds Kubik.
“It looks very bleak for democracy if a large number of people C O R D I S FA C T S H E E T
are talking about microchips in vaccines.” cordis.europa.eu/project/id/822682
29
Strengthening
the democratic fibre
of the EU
A wide-ranging group of researchers has found that a faltering belief in the rule
of law and democratic practices reflects just two issues shaking citizens’ trust in
the European Union.
© Ms Jane Campbell, Shutterstock
The EU has suffered a multitude of overlapping crises in recent multidisciplinary research project that sets out to identify
years, including COVID-19, increased migration, terrorist attacks, measures which can be taken to address rule of law and
the spread of populism, Brexit, emerging authoritarianism, the democratic backsliding in Member States as well as citizens’
sovereign debt crisis and trade issues. As a result, there is a concerns with the Union.
disconnect between the Union and its citizens.
“We tried to look at things from the point of view of strengthening
The EU-funded RECONNECT (Reconciling Europe with its Citizens the democratic fibre of the EU, the rule of law, and the other
through Democracy and Rule of Law) project is a 4-year, foundational values that are enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty
30
on European Union,” says project coordinator Jan Wouters. “The The project also makes a number of recommendations. “Closer
final objective is to find ways of better measuring what citizens attention should be given to the strengthening of channels of
expect from the EU, and to see how democratic legitimacy and democratic participation, since surveys show widespread support
the rule of law can be improved.” for this,” says Wouters. Compulsory voting, holding elections on
weekends, and running concurrent elections can all increase
voter turnout, he adds.
Seeds of doubt
The group recommends that the EU establishes an independent
Wouters, a Jean Monnet chair and professor of International expert commission to observe the quality of public discourse,
Law at KU Leuven, led a team of researchers drawn from and calls upon the European Commission to use its powers to
18 institutions. Together, they explored democracy and the rule translate shared values of democracy and the rule of law into
of law in the EU through both literary and empirical analyses, practice. “The EU has failed to reverse the trend in Member States
and conducted surveys on citizens’ attitudes to the EU. like Hungary and Poland, and doing so is fundamental for the
survival of the EU,” notes Wouters.
They found that a key hurdle was the limited understanding
that many EU citizens have of the bloc and its capabilities. “A However, Wouters adds that the current challenges observed in
considerable number, up to 50 %, the EU should be placed in a wider context: “This is not just an
never even discuss the EU, and have EU phenomenon. The global reality is far less aligned with its
no basic idea of what it can and can’t values than 15 years ago. It’s not just a matter of doing things
do,” remarks Wouters. better internally – external policy is needed to face these global
The EU has failed to
challenges.”
reverse the trend in This is reflected in the steady decline
Member States like of voter turnout for EU elections, and
Hungary and Poland, in how citizens vote, with many using
and doing so is EU ballots to signal their opinions on
fundamental for the national issues. P R OJ E C T
RECONNECT – Reconciling Europe with its
survival of the EU.
The group also discovered a ‘worrying’ Citizens through Democracy and Rule of Law
decline in the quality of public
discourse. “If public discourse becomes too one-sided, shallow, C O O R D I N AT E D B Y
and in the hands of government, we know it will cause problems KU Leuven in Belgium
with the functioning of democratic systems,” explains Wouters.
FUNDED UNDER
Global challenge
To help citizens understand the EU and the current challenges cordis.europa.eu/project/id/770142
related to democracy and the rule of law, the RECONNECT team
created a massive open online course (MOOC), which has already P R OJ E C T W E B S I T E
reached over 2 500 learners from 90 different countries. reconnect-europe.eu
31
Building trust in politics

through innovative
technology
Given the growing mistrust of policymakers, engaging citizens in the democratic
process has never been more critical. Over the past year, the EU-funded
TROPICO project has produced new insights into how collaboration via ICT
tools can improve public sector services and foster trust.
Technological advancements have resulted in the emergence of digital platforms, through which citizens can be directly consulted
new innovative forms of democratic participation. These include on policymaking and raise issues that might otherwise be ignored.
© one photo, Shutterstock
32
“Higher levels of participation can increase trust in platforms also offer a unique opportunity to user-test different
government, accountability and the legitimacy of solutions. Information and communication technologies (ICT) can
government decisions,” notes TROPICO (Transforming into also facilitate important feedback at the development stage.
Open, Innovative and Collaborative Governments) project
coordinator Lise H. Rykkja, professor of Administration and “Our research has generated evidence of the crucial role
Organisation Theory at the University of Bergen in Norway. of involving a diversity of different actors in both creating
and implementing new digital service solutions,” says
This is still an emerging form of governance though, and Rykkja. “Citizens’ experiences regarding the usefulness –
uncertainty remains over how digital platforms can best be or uselessness – of tools and services make them crucial
organised and administered. This is the challenge that the stakeholders.”
TROPICO project has sought to address.
Challenges to overcome
Citizen-focused collaborations
While digital platforms clearly benefit from institutional and
The project team began by examining collaborations inside financial support, adequate public sector funding remains
government to improve policy design. They also examined a barrier. Administrations also need to clearly explain the
collaborations between the government and private sector purpose of any platform to citizens.
partners, and how governments interact and involve citizens
and users in their policymaking and service delivery. “Collaboration with citizens does not always lead to better
participation or more involvement,” adds Rykkja. “Many
TROPICO combined conceptual analyses, literature reviews, e-participation platforms lack systems for providing
examinations of legislative codes and strategy documents. systematic feedback to users, which means that citizens
In-depth case studies, interviews and surveys were also often do not know how their input is being dealt with. There
carried out across 10 European should be incentives for ensuring that citizen feedback
countries, to investigate how resonates within governments.”
policies are designed and services
created in collaboration with non- The collaborative involvement of citizens and other non-
There should be
governmental actors. governmental actors also requires a balance between
incentives for ensuring steering the collaborative innovation process, and letting it
that citizen feedback “We found that collaborations unfold without too much intervention. “Different groups of
resonates within where citizens have a specific actors need to be carefully managed so that the collaboration
governments. role can help to create a learning can bring new, concrete solutions,” explains Rykkja. “Carefully
environment where they can openly managed, a diverse range of actors can lead to more mutual
share feedback and experiences,” learning and experimentation, resulting in new innovative
explains Rykkja. “It is important to establish a climate that ideas.”
stimulates learning, experimentation and the exploration of
different knowledge.” ICT, notes Rykkja, is critical for public service delivery, policy
design and bureaucratic efficiency. When used consciously,
To fully benefit from citizens’ and users’ involvement embracing ICT can contribute to better working practices inside
therefore, administrations need to work to ensure that their governments, and enhance interactions between governments,
recommendations are incorporated into decisions. Digital citizens and stakeholders outside the public sector.
33
Digital technologies are useful for visualising new ideas, P R OJ E C T

connecting information and sharing data to ensure mutual TROPICO – Transforming into Open, Innovative
learning. ICT can also facilitate important feedback from diverse and Collaborative Governments
groups of users and may offer an opportunity for users to test
different service solutions. C O O R D I N AT E D B Y
University of Bergen in Norway
Due for completion in November 2021, the TROPICO project
will continue to deliver insights and recommendations on the F U N D E D U N D E R
drivers and barriers, as well as the possibilities and pitfalls Horizon 2020-SOCIETY
of collaboration through digital platforms. “This project will
hopefully make governments and institutions more aware C O R D I S FA C T S H E E T
that encouraging citizen participation via digital tools is cordis.europa.eu/project/id/726840
crucial for democracy and democratic participation, and that
involving users may help stimulate innovation and creativity,” P R OJ E C T W E B S I T E
says Rykkja. tropico-project.eu
34
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RESEARCH*EU MAGAZINE ISSUE 105
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CORDIS Results Pack on

Insights into a complex and

18 COVID-19: The latest ingredient

Who are EU? Forging

CHIEF’s first and perhaps most radical recommendation is to

Beyond rethinking national identities, the project also FUNDED UNDER

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The secret robot armies

The group were also awarded a proof of concept grant to develop

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Studying Hong Kong’s

From Hong Kong

Additionally, DemandDemoc saw that attendance at a protest C O R D I S FA C T S H E E T

COVID-19 is a great example in this regard. DIPLOFACE studied P R OJ E C T

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A toolbox for integration:

From victim to suspect:

Victims, like other volunteers, should be

Charting the many paths

Economy and identity Mapping integration

The InDivEU also gathered policymakers, civil servants,

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Algorithms are reshaping

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This Results Pack is a collaboration between CORDIS, the European

Print ISBN 978-92-78-42653-8 ISSN 2599-8285 doi:10.2830/649436 ZZ-AK-21-010-EN-C

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2021

Reuse is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

Research*eu is free of charge.

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