\nSam van der Staak is Director for Europe at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). Kevin Arceneaux is Director of Sciences Po’s Centre for Political Research (CEVIPOF).\n<\/p>\n
\nThe European Commission is preparing its\u00a0Democracy Shield<\/a>\u00a0amid overall citizen gloom about democracy.\u00a0Poll<\/a>\u00a0after opinion\u00a0poll<\/a>\u00a0shows that ever fewer people, including\u00a0young people<\/a>, support democracy \u2013 only about a third of youth according to a recent\u00a0survey<\/a>.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \nSupport for illiberal populists continues to rise in\u00a0Europe<\/a>, while 35% of\u00a0Gen-Z and millennials<\/a> lean towards strongman government. This begs the question: Will the EU\u2019s Democracy Shield be protecting what citizens relish or what they reject?\n<\/p>\n \nAs is so often the case with surveys, there\u2019s more than meets the eye.\u00a0Research<\/a> shows that populist-leaning citizens prefer not less but more democracy, albeit a more efficient version of it. When asked if they want strong leaders who listen to ordinary people, it turns out that many of them agree. But they also support seeking consensus with opponents.\n<\/p>\n \nSuch populist voters \u2013 about a quarter of Europeans \u2013 stand out from the ten percent of authoritarian-leaning Europeans, who equally desire strong leaders but abhor the idea of obeying the average folk. In other words, although populist voters are less satisfied with democracy than mainstream democrats, they are not opposed to it. What they do want is elected leaders to be in control, especially on the economy.\n<\/p>\n \nAnd there\u2019s the surprise. Over the past months, European leaders have made unprecedentedly large economic choices. Last week\u2019s EU-US trade\u00a0deal<\/a> alone includes \u20ac700 billion in energy purchases<\/a> and \u20ac550 billion in economic investments. Europe\u2019s rearmament plan<\/a> of last March pumps \u20ac800 billion into the security sector. And the EU\u2019s new multiyear budget rigorously shifts \u20ac410 billion from farmers and regions to innovation and economic competitiveness<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \nIf ever in its eighty-year existence Europe was being decisive, it is now. Still, citizens feel that politics is a stacked deck where \u201cThere is no choice\u201d. How come?\n<\/p>\n \nIt is because of something social scientists call \u2018relative deprivation\u2019. When citizens feel their group is worse off than others, and that ordinary people are taken advantage of by a corrupt elite, they open up to populist leaders. This yearning for democratic fairness has little to do with absolute wellbeing. Even when their own prosperity stays unaltered, the mere sense that others gain more provokes a desire for strong leadership with fewer checks and balances.\n<\/p>\n \nPresident Von der Leyen knows this. One year ago, she presented her second mandate\u2019s political guidelines with the bold title \u201cEurope\u2019s Choice<\/a>\u201d. Yet, on stage with President Trump in Scotland, she presented<\/a> their trade deal as merely \u201cdelivering stability and predictability\u201d to Europe. Meanwhile, she depicted her populist opponent as a \u201ctough negotiator\u201d and \u201cdealmaker\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \nCommentators<\/a>, while acknowledging the outcome was the best Europe could get, reviled the submissive tone and \u201cEurope\u2019s humiliation<\/a>\u201d. In other words, Europeans did not dislike the deal but hated that Trump won more. Such letdowns risk losing voters for the very cause the EU\u2019s trade deal aims to sustain, its arms purchases try to protect, and its Democracy Shield hopes to revive: representative democracy.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nTo reverse this sense of malaise, Europe should show citizens that democracy delivers, and that there is, in fact, a choice. The EU previously tried through citizen panels in its Conference on the Future of Europe. But reviving trust in democracy is not just about placing citizens in the driving seat. Most people want to know that there is an able driver at the steering wheel.\n<\/p>\n \nThe European Democracy Shield can help. First, by providing better democratic information. It can systematically collect citizen views on democracy in all member states, to inform leaders in making their decisions. Politicians should better understand the democratic expectations of their citizens, as well as the health of their democratic institutions. Second, the Shield could establish continuous leader-citizen communication on the state of democracy, at various political levels and across the twenty-seven member states. An annual pow-wow between EU leaders and the democracy community, backed by all the academic firepower of Europe\u2019s top researchers, would help keep EU leaders committed.\n<\/p>\n \nRestoring trust in democracy is possible but requires more than a communication strategy. Politicians should better know what shapes voter trust. And voters should understand the tough choices leaders make to uphold their democracies. The Democracy Shield can serve that purpose.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam van der Staak is Director for Europe at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA).…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187],"class_list":{"0":"post-348457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115037017010800566","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}