Project description
Why wealth is not curing our politics
The rise of illiberalism is often linked to economic precarity. However, the correlation between prosperity and social stability is tenuous. In many affluent democracies, the fruits of economic growth ripen alongside a surge in misinformation, deep-seated polarisation, and growing public hostility. This suggests that ‘good times’ do not merely sustain the status quo; they may actively reshape the democratic psyche. The ERC-funded ECONENGAGE project aims to deconstruct this paradox. Through surveys and experiments across the OECD, including Sweden and the UK, the researchers are mapping how wealth influences ideological shifts and trust in the electoral process. The goal is to uncover the often-fragile link between a healthy economy and a functioning democracy.
Objective
Economic downturns can be a breeding ground for extremist politics. Yet, we know far less about how a good economy affects citizens’ interactions with politics. Despite massive wealth accumulation in established democracies, populism, misinformation, and group-based hostility continue to rise. Does national economic improvement affect the way people tune into politics and their commitment to democratic norms? ECONENGAGE fills this timely research gap by providing and testing an original theory on the impacts of economic improvement on the quality of people’s political engagement in established democracies. Starting with the point that improvement changes the stakes that people attach to politics, I will examine how this improvement affects their political information consumption, susceptibility to political misinformation, and the hardening of their ideological beliefs–all of which are central to democratic values – as well as their democratic attitudes.
ECONENGAGE is organized into four work packages (WPs). WP1 uncovers the criteria that different individuals use to define economic improvement, using existing and original survey data. In WP2, I will further examine the theoretical mechanisms and generate testable hypotheses for how economic improvement affects people’s political information processing and degree of entrenchment in their ideological beliefs. WP3 tests these hypotheses with cross-national survey data in OECD countries and three experiments in Sweden and the UK, countries that differ markedly in economic and political institutions. WP4 investigates the broader impacts of economic improvement on the stakes people attach to elections, preferences for democratic decision-making rules, and commitment to ideological pluralism. ECONENGAGE will provide us with novel tools to better understand vitally important global trends of rising misinformation and inter-group hostility and suggest ways to ensure vibrant democratic engagement in both good times and bad.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences political sciences political transitions elections
- social sciences political sciences government systems democracy
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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405 30 Goeteborg
Sweden
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