Impulse

A Toast to Democracy!

Plenty of people feel that politics operates over their heads and they want to be involved in key issues. With Mehr Demokratie, I advocate for greater citizen participation through randomly selected citizens’ councils and direct democracy. 

Hate speech online is in no way part of the natural order of things. Desinformation and conspiracy myths are like toxic waste for democracy. We need to get rid of them entirely: with digital due diligence, new media skills, and algorithmic accountability for social media. 

Enabling governments to make citizens the main actors in decision-making will lead to qualitative and credible governance. Using digital tools will widen participation and creates more open, transparent, and accountable democratic processes and communities, strengthening our democracy.

For many people, voting is complicated. To make it easier to participate in elections and more appealing to engage with political issues, we are working on fun, low-threshold information services. Our goal is to make voting easier. 

Since moving back to Bulgaria, I’ve been working hard to promote political education, a neglected topic in Eastern Europe. This pioneering work is a challenge, because convincing people that a democratic culture is just as essential as reading and writing is no easy task.

Civic space needs to be nurtured, even in mature democracies. At the OECD Observatory of Civic Space we support member countries to protect and promote fundamental rights such as freedoms of expression, association, and assembly through comparative research, dialogue, and concrete recommendations.

Ever since COVID, more and more employees have a say at their workplace. Participation in other areas would strengthen their relationship with the company and their engagement overall. I believe that self-confident citizens in a democracy should be more than just employees bound by instructions.   

Soccer has huge potential and is a great way of addressing social and societal issues alike. Engaging with the sport empowers people outside of formal educational contexts to participate in democracy. 

Around the world, and sometimes even in discussions in our own country, we see offensive behavior and language. In light of all this, it is clear time and again that we cannot take democracy for granted, that we have to work on it every single day, and that we need to include young people.