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ActEU
Title: Towards a new era of representative democracy - Activating European citizens' trust in times of crises and polarization (ActEU)
General information:
- Homepage
- Presentation video
- Team members
- ActEU Civil Society Network
- Start date: March 2023
- Funding: Horizon Europe - Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, 2021-2027) within the funding line "HORIZON-CL2-2022-DEMOCRACY-01 (Reshaping democracies)
- Collaborative partners: University of Duisburg-Essen, Saarland University, Paris Lodron University Salzburg (Austria), Trans European Policy Studies Association (Belgium), Institute of International Relations Prague (Czech Republic), Abo Akademi University (Finland), Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques Paris (France), Institut Catholique de Lille (France), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), Universita Degli Studi di Trento (Italy), SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw (Poland), Universidad de Oviedo (Spain)
Contents: The ActEU project aims to find answers to the following questions: How can we conceptualise 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 character of European representative democracies require an identical level of support from citizens at regional, national and EU level? To what extent does social polarisation on key political issues of our time - immigration, climate change and gender inequality - challenge political trust in and legitimacy of democratic political systems? And what can policymakers and civil society do to address these challenges?
ActEU has two overarching goals: In phase 1, we examine the persistent problems of declining trust, legitimacy and representation in Europe with a special focus on the polarisation of societies and the multi-level structures of the EU. To this end, the team based at Saarland University and led by Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun provides a conceptual framework for political attitudes, behaviour and representation across Europe and creates an original empirical infrastructure based on an innovative combination of methods and newly collected quantitative and qualitative empirical data (focus groups, experimental surveys, web scraping). In phase 2, these results will feed directly into the development of a toolkit of remedial actions to improve political trust in and legitimacy of European representative democracies (including through a civil society network, Youth Democracy Labs in 13 European cities; "Cartooning for democracy").
ActEU auf dem DVPW-Kongress in Göttingen
Vom 24. bis zum 27. September hat der Kongress der Deutschen Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft zum Thema „Politik in der Polykrise“ an der Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen stattgefunden. Dr. Alex Hartland hat hier einen Vortrag zu ActEU mit dem Titel „From Top to Bottom: Explaining the relationship between elite polarisation and mass polarisation“ gehalten.
EPSA conference in Cologne
From 4 to 6 July 2024, the 14th annual conference of the European Political Science Association took place in the MediaPark Cologne. Professor Braun's department also took part in the conference and gave four presentations, including one by Alex Hartland entitled “From Top to Bottom: Explaining the relationship between elite polarisation and mass polarisation”, in which he presented findings from the ActEU project.
Aufruf zur Einreichung von Beiträgen für DVPW-Tagung an der Universität des Saarlandes
Im März 2025 wird an der Universität des Saarlandes eine Tagung der Deutschen Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft abgehalten. Die Veranstaltung unter dem Titel „Citizen’s trust and societal polarization in times of transformation. Comparative Perspectives from different world regions“ untersucht eines der drängendsten Probleme repräsentativer Demokratien: Das Ver- bzw. Misstrauen der Bürger:innen in "ihr" politisches System, in Institutionen und Politiker:innen.
EU project ActEU turns one year old
The Horizon-funded EU project ActEU has now been running for a year. Prof Daniela Braun and Dr Alex Hartland will present the first results in June at the conference Emotional Dynamics of (In)security and Politics at Saarland University, in July at the annual EPSA conference in Cologne and in September at the DVPW Congress in Göttingen.
The ActEU project aims to find answers to the following questions: How can we conceptualise 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 support from citizens at regional, national and EU level? To what extent does social polarisation on key political issues of our time - immigration, climate change and gender inequality - challenge political trust in democratic political systems and their legitimacy? And what can political decision-makers and civil society do to overcome these challenges?
Student assistant in the EU-funded project ActEU to start on 15 January 2024
As part of the EU-funded project ActEU, the Chair of Political Science with a focus on European Integration and International Relations is looking for a student assistant with 8 hours per week to support research activities from 15 January 2024.
To apply, please send your CV and a letter of motivation (as a single pdf) with the subject "Student Assistant Application" to Alex Hartland by 30 November 2023.Call for applications
Lecture "Representative democracy in decline"
On October 19, Alex Hartland gave his lecture "Representative democracy in decline" at Fraunhofer ISI. He presented an overview of the ActEU project.
The ISI lecture series bundles exciting topics from the Fraunhofer ISI portfolio and offers opportunities for discussion and exchange at regular intervals.
TEPSA Training: "Inside the European Parliament"
Prof. Daniela Braun will participate in the Trans European Policy Studies Association's online seminar from 11-13 October 2023. 20 students will have an opportunity to gain first-hand insights from researchers, EU practitioners, and policymakers on the functioning of the European Parliament, its role in the complex architecture of EU governance, and the role of youth electoral participation. The event takes place in the framework of the ActEU project.
Lecture by Prof. Daniela Braun
"How can we Measure, Study and Improve Citizens' Dissatisfaction with Representative Democracy in the EU's Multi-level System?" - Prof. Daniela Braun will give a lecture on this topic on 19 September 2023 from 12-13:30. This will provide an insight into the ActEU project funded by Horizon Europe.
The event will take place in building A 5 6 in room A 231. Further information