Democracy under Threat: How Education can Save it

We are currently witnessing an unprecedented rise of authoritarian leaders, backed by popular support, who defy democracy. Challenging existing paradigms and an elite-focused literature, DEMED will take an individual-level perspective to study the causes of democratic backsliding and identify solutions to build more resilient democratic societies. Thereby, DEMED will have a transformative effect on the study of democracies and autocracies as well as the dynamics between the two. DEMED is a ground-breaking project that transforms our knowledge about the process of democratisation and backsliding. Work packages (WP) are divided along four objectives: 1) Establish causes of democratic backsliding, focusing on the role of indoctrination; 2) Demonstrate the effects of indoctrination on democratic political cultures and democratic survival; 3) Identify solutions to prevent democratic recessions through innovative online civic education programmes; and 4) provide a new theoretical and empirically validated paradigm to lead to more stable democracies. WP1 develops the first unifying theoretical framework of societal drivers predicting democratic (in)stability. Based on this theoretical and conceptual work, WP1 creates the first-ever global dataset on strategies of indoctrination by 180 countries from 1900 to today. WP2 uses cutting-edge methods to test for the first time how these educational drivers create democratic and authoritarian political cultures. This quantitative approach will be complemented with original qualitative data. Finally, WP3 uses pioneering online randomised experiments to test the impact of newly developed civic education interventions to promote democracy. This is an ambitious research agenda, with theoretical and methodological innovations. DEMED revolutionises our understanding of the causes, effects and solutions of democratic backsliding. It presents risks, but with the potential for ground-breaking scientific and societal impact.