https://theloop.ecpr.eu/plain-democracy-reclaiming-fundamentals-in-an-age-of-democratic-erosion/ ECPR's Political Science Blog Sat, 13 Sep 2025 09:52:22 +0000 hourly 1 https://theloop.ecpr.eu/plain-democracy-reclaiming-fundamentals-in-an-age-of-democratic-erosion/#comment-52372 Sat, 13 Sep 2025 09:52:22 +0000 https://theloop.ecpr.eu/?p=24539#comment-52372 I appreciate the idea of using "plain language", so that citizens "recognise, understand, and use the fundamentals of democracy". I think it touches upon a sensitive point: political culture, or the lack of it, both at the level of politicians and bureaucrats, and at the level of citizens. Democracy works as long as citizens and institutions share and observe a common set of rules, rights and values within their polity, while accepting pluralism and diversity of opinions, views, values, interests, preferences, etc. In post-communist Romania, one can see politicians making decisions and acting devoid of public accountability, limiting rights, and trying to impose their own values to other people. On the other hand extremist populist contestation has gained huge traction in the past couple of years, due to high political, economic and social dissatisfaction. But poor democratic culture at the level of citizens prevent them from seeing both when people in power curtail their freedoms and weaken their democracy, and when the extremist opposition actors try to lure them with autocratic solutions, which would destroy democracy, although they all speak about... defending democracy.

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