Across Europe, there is a rise of political formations that claim to challenge liberal elites and speak for the 'ordinary person'. These can be loosely categorised as 'populist'. Many of these formations have undesirable tendencies (e.g. denigrating an out-group) which are not confined to populist parties but often associated with them. The PaCE project, with others, aims to better understand and respond to these negative tendencies, to build upon the lessons of positive examples, and hence contribute to a firmer democratic and institutional foundation for citizens of Europe.
PaCE is analysing the type, growth and consequences of such parties and movements in terms of their particular characteristics and context. From this, it will analyse the causes of these and their specific challenges to liberal democracy. PaCE will propose responses to these challenges, developing risk-analyses for these. Throughout the project, it will engage with citizens and policy actors, face-to-face and via new forms of democratic participation appropriate to our digital age to help guide the project. The project will develop new tools, based on machine-learning algorithms, to identify, track and understand populist narratives. It apply what it has learnt to the design of online consultations and participatory tools. It will produce outputs aimed at the public, politicians, activists and educators. It will look into the future, developing new visions concerning how different actors could respond to these kinds of developments. Its objectives are to:
* Trace the historical growth and political consequences for the EU project and democracy of illiberal democratic, nativist, and antidemocratic parties
* Study the general and the specific causes of the three modes of such parties (illiberal, nativist and anti-democratic) in European democracies – distinguishing between demand and supply side, internal and external causes
* Study, propose and test policy-oriented responses to each of the three forms of populism
* Identify strategies for strengthening democratic values and practices, taking into account the role played by both traditional and social media and public opinion
* Engage with stakeholders, especially groups under-represented in public affairs, particularly younger citizens, schools and local communities, in new forms of democratic engagement appropriate in our digital age
