Challenges to Democracy

During the 1990s the Europe in particular faced with change of political systems in several countries that went through transition and consolidation of democracy. The new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe have been observed closely in relation to the quality of democracy and strength of civil society. However, during the last few years we have been observing democratic backsliding in post-socialist countries like Hungary and Poland while also in established western democracies (such as France, Netherlands, Austria, Germany…), the populism is on the rise and the extreme populist parties are winning electoral votes while the voters turnout and political participation is dropping and political trust in decreasing. Whit global challenges on the rise such as migration crises, war conflicts, geopolitical pressures, the threat of economic crises but also the recent health crises the political institutions and politicians are facing challenges to which they can not always provide satisfactory answers in transparent and accountable way.
This panel is concentrating on several aspects of challenges to democracy from systemic corruption, trends of populism, challenges of new technology such as use of Artificial intelligence in politics, values of young voters and their views on democracy and elections as well as issues of democratic goevrnance and role of interest groups with intentions to improve quality of democracy. While the panel focuses primarily on Europe, it applies to a broader context.
With different country cases and different applied methodologies, the panel seeks to answer research question on how to understand the current challenges to democracy and what do the current policy making process mean for understanding the quality of democracy. The focus only on new democracies is no longer sufficient as established democracies, which should provide thresholds are also facing trends of democratic backsliding and rise of populist parties and politicians. Are there any solutions and mechanisms that could face the challenges to democracies and improve its quality?