Europe's Futures Annual Symposium 2024: Ieva Česnulaitytė

Europe's Futures Annual Symposium 2024
Cres, Croatia
Thursday, 30 May 2024
Panel: Democratic Innovation and Citizens’ Assemblies in the Landscape of Geopolitical Instability
Panelists: Oana Popescu Zamfir
Moderator and Panelist: Ivana Dragičević

Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe and Western Balkans is in a particularly vulnerable moment as it faces a wave of populism, polarization, and growing public disengagement against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine. One of the antidotes to the weakening of democratic infrastructure and resilience is genuine democratic innovation.
Over the last few decades, governments across the world have been reaping the benefits of Citizens’ Assemblies: a democratic model, grounded in ancient Athenian practices that has been widely implemented and embedded into public decision-making as new institutions connected to power and underpinned by a legal basis (OECD, 2020). This session is going to examine to what extent Citizens’ Assemblies have been taken up by governments and civil society in Central and Eastern Europe & Western Balkans. It will explore the contextual challenges and peculiarities as well as opportunities for these emergent forms of democracy in the region and reflect what could be done to support and foster an enabling environment for them to thrive.

Europe’s Futures is a partnership initiative of the IWM and ERSTE Foundation. In a rapidly changing global environment it aims to understand and address the challenges confronting Europe and the European Union.

At the Europe's Futures Annual Symposium 2024, the sixth cohort of Europe’s Futures Fellows presented the conclusions of their research in the academic year 2023/24. The findings were discussed with the Europe’s Futures Alumni Network and researchers from the University of Rijeka Center for Advanced Studies Southeast Europe.

In cooperation with University of Rijeka Center for Advanced Studies Southeast Europe (UNIRI CAS SEE).