In this video, Prof. Dr. Michael Kaeding and Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun introduce us to the ActEU project. “Activating European Citizens’ Trust in Times of Crises and Polarization” (ActEU) is a Horizon-funded Research and Innovation Action aiming to answer four key questions:
- How can we conceptualize and empirically measure political trust and legitimacy beyond the usual survey question “How much trust do you have in the Parliament?”
- Does the multi-level nature of European representative democracies require an identical level of citizen support at the regional, national and EU level?
- How is social polarization on key policy issues of our times –immigration, climate change, and gender inequality– challenging political trust in and legitimacy of democratic political systems?
- What can policymakers and civil society do to master these challenges?
The main ambitions of the project are twofold. It seeks first to map and investigate persistent problems of declining trust, legitimacy and representation in Europe with a particular attention to the polarization of societies and the EU’s multi-level structure. Second, it will craft tailor-made toolkits for political and civil society actors, school teachers and university lecturers to deal with issues of declining political trust in representative democracies in flux and counteract a further decrease.
You can learn more about the project on its website, or by following the hashtag #ActEU on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Learn more about TEPSA’s involvement here.
