These days, it looks like everyone is shooting at democracy – from terrorists to authoritarian regimes, from Eastern oligarchs to Western tech billionaires – developing and developed countries alike. As democracy became a sitting duck, nobody seems particularly happy with it anymore. So, the many turned to the few because «demos kratos» broke the promise. Oh, the irony.

We are lucky its enemies are still too arrogant
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, while aiming to recreate the Great Russian Empire by invading Ukraine, fighting NATO’s expansion, creating ruptures throughout the European Union and interfering with elections in Romania, has ironically succeeded in getting Sweden and Finland into NATO and Romania & Bulgaria into Schengen. The U.S.’s shift in foreign policy away from Europe, having a more transactional approach now, achieved something remarkable: it awakened the European Union. Sure, I am cherry-picking the best outcomes while ignoring many other negative consequences that should never have happened in the first place. But we let this domino fall by the decisions we made – and mostly by the ones we did not have the courage to make at the right time.

We were lazy, so we have to pay the price
We are here because democracy’s friends took it for granted and got lazy, focusing on winning Ms/Mr Popularity for elections. We blame populism, but democratic leaders created the most fertile ground for it by not engaging citizens meaningfully. And laziness manifested in so many other ways, but I think the most dangerous one is framing extremism as the weapon of the least wealthy and educated. Correlation, sure. Causality? I don’t think so. The worst thing that happened in Eastern European countries in regard to the EU and democracy was politicians’ laziness in understanding and explaining various requirements from the EU, simply communicating: «because the EU asked us to comply». We should put more effort into education and efficient collaboration, and use less coercion.

Democracy lost its spark. But is it dead?
While I cannot answer this question, I sure hope not. Democracy desperately needs a rebranding. People need stories, because when we don’t get inspiring stories to share, we create our own – for better and for worse – more or less in tune with reality. By not having a strong story about democracy, we left room for others to shape its narrative in society. Businesspeople felt taken advantage of by politicians, employees by employers. Academia became more expensive and less relevant. Non-profits became understaffed, underfunded and extremely frustrated, while the public sector feels overworked and underappreciated. Democracy was cracking under its own weight, taking with it people’s trust in institutions – and in one another. Democracy is hard and unnatural. We are not born understanding the concept, and we don’t actively promote it to help citizens appreciate it.

The Rise of the Super Citizens
I think democracy can not only survive but thrive – if we do a few things differently. Making citizens a central part of the process is not a new concept – far from it – but it still does not work. Why? Because in reality, even if you want to make a more meaningful contribution, you can’t. People don’t have the time or energy for this highly inefficient process nowadays. But we do have tools to make democracy work better – we just haven’t deployed them at scale yet. If I had to pick one thing for everyone to be great at, in terms of responsibilities, it would look like this:
  • Individual level – contribution (civism)
   • Neighbourhood level – cohesion (trust)
   • City level – administration (projects)
   • Country level – synchronisation (laws)
   • Regional alliances (security)
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The window of opportunity is closing rapidly
We have four to eight years max to dramatically improve democracy. Otherwise, the world will look very different from today. Extremism. Climate change. Inequality. AI. Cost of living. We are inevitably heading into the perfect storm – and we are not ready. Failing to get ready will be dystopian, so we have to make democracy more relatable – synthesising, not simplifying – and help create the Super Citizens, as I like to call these agents of change. They can reignite the story of democracy from the bottom up, bringing power back to where it belongs – the people.

This is why my colleagues at DearNeighbour and I are so committed to strengthening the bonds between citizens. By creating united, healthy and prosperous communities, we act as an operating system for change – bringing together every existing stakeholder to share ideas, resources and hope from the ground up. Change the world by changing yourself and your neighbourhood. Demos kratos – empower citizens to be who we really want them to be: part of the game.