DEMOS

Is populism a threat to democracy? If populism is bad, how to counter it? In this new episode of the DEMOS podcast, three experts answer Google’s top 5 frequently asked questions about populism.

To answer these important questions, Lenka Kordovaníková, a DEMOS’s communications trainee, hosts DEMOS’s project leader Zsolt Boda (Centre for Social Sciences, CSS), project legal scholar Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz (CSS), and distinguished scholar on populism and invited guest Levente Littvay (Central European University). They cover the topics from multiple perspectives – and give you insights into incoming DEMOS research on how democratic skills and education help counter populist challenges in today’s world.

In deliberative practices, citizens voice their opinions and influence policymaking. DEMOS is co-organizing a Citizens’ Assembly with the Budapest City Council as part of the Conference on the Future of Europe. Citizens from local communities are gathering to discuss and debate common problems and the best ideas to solve them. Decision-makers use these ideas to formulate policies. To reflect on how the initiative works and why it matters, Giulia Ursini, a trainee at the Centre for Social Sciences, Budapest (CSS), the DEMOS coordinator, talked with Daniel Oross, a Research Fellow at CSS and a member of the management committee of a COST Action on constitution-making and deliberative democracy. They discuss why the new practice is an effective tool to enhance citizens’ participation in democracy and how DEMOS is studying the process to help address the challenges associated with populism.

We have seen populism rise in the last decades. The financial crisis, migration, globalization, rising inequalities, and the feeling that many people have that they have been left behind have made populist politicians very attractive. People have stopped trusting the elites and public institutions — including the media and governments. Can non-populists parties do things better? Can trust be regained? What role does the media play in helping society discern populist politics? 

In this episode of the DEMOS podcast, Odin Linardatou, Head of Communications at the Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) discusses all those questions with Dimitri Sotiropoulos, Senior Research Fellow at ELIAMEP, Professor of Political Science at the University of Athens, and DEMOS co-investigator in Greece, and Manos Tsatsanis, Research Fellow at ELIAMEP, expert in comparative political analysis, and member of the DEMOS project.

How to protect constitutional democracy when the attacks come from elected governments? In this episode of the DEMOS podcast, Marco Antonio Simonelli, a DEMOS researcher from University of Barcelona, speaks about Hungary and Poland’s threats to veto both the EU budget and the COVID-19 recovery fund, and how this is linked to constitutional populism. The populist leaders of both countries have changed constitutions, targeted minority groups, and undermined judicial independence over the past years. As a result, what is left is a rule of law problem. Follow the conversation to learn more about how populism has an impact on democracy, and what the European Union could do to protect the rule of law.