About the Project
The DEMOS (Democratic Efficacy and the Varieties of Populism in Europe)research project funded under the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, unifying partners from 15 countries and 10 disciplines aims at the better understanding of populism. The project investigatethe phenomenon of populism from a novel perspective: through the lens of democratic efficacy. The concept of democratic efficacy combines attitudinal features (political efficacy), democratic skills and democratic opportunity structures in building on the assumption that the expression of populism is a symptom of mismatch between how the democratic polity operates and how citizens conceive their own aspirations, needs and identities vis-à-vis the polity.
DEMOS assumes that people are more prone to lean towards populism if they perceive their personal capacities and institutional opportunities to influence politics (i.e., their democratic efficacy) as being limited; that is, the costs of investing in reflective political engagement are perceived as being too high. DEMOS assumes that this situation cannot be blamed on one of the parties (that is, either the polity or the citizen) exclusively—it is the result of a complex interaction in which the features of the political system don’t match the aspirations and needs of the individual. The notion of democratic efficacy is designed to conceptually capture this interaction between the polity and the citizen. It also provides a practical starting point to elaborate and test proposals on how to increase personal capacities and institutional opportunities against the challenge of populism.
In order to better understand populism DEMOS addresses its hitherto under-researched aspects at micro-, meso-, and macro-levels: its socio-psychological roots, social actors’ responses to the populist challenge, and populism’s effects on governance. DEMOS focuses not only on the polity, but equally on citizens’ perspectives: how they are affected by, and how they react to, populism. Politically underrepresented groups and those targeted by populist politics are a particular focus, e.g. youth, women, and migrants. As populism has varying socially embedded manifestations, DEMOS aims at contextualising it through comparative analysis on the variety of populisms across Europe, including their historical, cultural, and socioeconomic roots, manifestations, and impacts. DEMOS develops indicators and predictors of populism and elaborates scenarios on the interactions of populism with social actors and institutions both at the national and the EU levels.
DEMOS combines in-depth research on populism and democratic efficacy with action research and pilot projects in order to develop lasting tools and timely policy recommendations; project methods include experiments,deliberative polling, text mining, surveys, and legal analysis. DEMOS places strong emphasis on communication and productive interactions with a variety of stakeholders throughout the project, including policymakers,journalists, students, and the general public.
Coordinator:
Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Partners:
University of Hamburg
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
Kaunas University of Technology
Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy
School of Communication and Media, Bratislava
University for Business Engineering and Management, Banja Luka
Charles University, Prague
European Citizen Action Service, Brussels
University of Turin
Glasgow Caledonian University
University of Amsterdam
University of Copenhagen
University of Barcelona
Pantheon-Sorbonne University, Paris 1
Duration of the project: 01/12/2018 – 30/11/2021 (36 months)
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 822590.
DEMOS assumes that people are more prone to lean towards populism if they perceive their personal capacities and institutional opportunities to influence politics (i.e., their democratic efficacy) as being limited; that is, the costs of investing in reflective political engagement are perceived as being too high. DEMOS assumes that this situation cannot be blamed on one of the parties (that is, either the polity or the citizen) exclusively—it is the result of a complex interaction in which the features of the political system don’t match the aspirations and needs of the individual. The notion of democratic efficacy is designed to conceptually capture this interaction between the polity and the citizen. It also provides a practical starting point to elaborate and test proposals on how to increase personal capacities and institutional opportunities against the challenge of populism.
In order to better understand populism DEMOS addresses its hitherto under-researched aspects at micro-, meso-, and macro-levels: its socio-psychological roots, social actors’ responses to the populist challenge, and populism’s effects on governance. DEMOS focuses not only on the polity, but equally on citizens’ perspectives: how they are affected by, and how they react to, populism. Politically underrepresented groups and those targeted by populist politics are a particular focus, e.g. youth, women, and migrants. As populism has varying socially embedded manifestations, DEMOS aims at contextualising it through comparative analysis on the variety of populisms across Europe, including their historical, cultural, and socioeconomic roots, manifestations, and impacts. DEMOS develops indicators and predictors of populism and elaborates scenarios on the interactions of populism with social actors and institutions both at the national and the EU levels.
DEMOS combines in-depth research on populism and democratic efficacy with action research and pilot projects in order to develop lasting tools and timely policy recommendations; project methods include experiments,deliberative polling, text mining, surveys, and legal analysis. DEMOS places strong emphasis on communication and productive interactions with a variety of stakeholders throughout the project, including policymakers,journalists, students, and the general public.
Coordinator:
Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Partners:
University of Hamburg
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
Kaunas University of Technology
Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy
School of Communication and Media, Bratislava
University for Business Engineering and Management, Banja Luka
Charles University, Prague
European Citizen Action Service, Brussels
University of Turin
Glasgow Caledonian University
University of Amsterdam
University of Copenhagen
University of Barcelona
Pantheon-Sorbonne University, Paris 1
Duration of the project: 01/12/2018 – 30/11/2021 (36 months)
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 822590.