Democracy is dead, long live democracy!  Can citizen deliberation help us overcome affective polarisation?

Democracy has been declared dead many times, and yet it is still alive and kicking. On the one hand, global challenges and rapidly changing socio-technological conditions represent a huge opportunity for liberal democracies to keep reinventing themselves. At the same time, they are imposing a heavy burden on the conditions needed for them to thrive. Governing in political systems that primarily base political trust on elections is becoming more cumbersome in a more fragmented and rapidly shifting political landscape. In many countries, citizens feel that they have no impact on politics, which is leading to growing public discontent and high abstention rates. The widespread feeling among citizens that participatory democracy overpromises and underdelivers raises the following question: if negative emotions and affective polarization threaten democracy, can deliberation save it? 

This paper resulted from a workshop at the 12th Genshagen Forum for Franco-German Dialogue (June 27 and 28, 2024) with the topic “Disintegrated Societies? The Future of Cohesion in Europe”. The Genshagen Forum for French-German Dialogue has been organized since 2010. Considering the numerous challenges that Europe is facing, Germany and France must take responsibility regarding the future of the EU and join forces for the development of shared strategies. The Genshagen Forum actively encourages this process by promoting a result-oriented dialogue between mid-career leaders from both countries.