Democracy in Europe: protection or reinvention How now will the continent live?

It has been argued that in 2024, for the first time since the beginning of the 21st century, the number of democracies in the world exceeded the number of autocracies. According to most indicators, Europe continues to be one of the most democratic regions on the planet. The latest annual Freedom House calls it the “most free region in the world.”

It's worth noting that a number of crises have been gradually undermining the image of the European Union as a stronghold of democracy and material prosperity, and they almost completely killed it. Today, the liberal democracy is in crisis. The trend towards democracy that dominated in the world after the Cold War reached its peak in 2006. Since that time it was on decline that only intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The digital transition was another strong factor contributing to the regress of democracy. At the initial stages of its development, the Internet seemed to be a highly democratic tool. This idea was based on its ability to host online debates, help in decision-making, to democratize citizens’ participation, etc. However, the Internet and social networks have become not only technologies of liberation but also a powerful instrument of control.

It is obvious that European technological sovereignty is not there. Currently, the EU is largely dependent on large hi-tech companies mostly based in the US or China. A lot of Europeans’ personal data are eventually under the control of these companies. It often leads to conflicts of social, political or ethical nature.

For example, the recommendation algorithms, as a rule, prioritize extreme content because it can stimulate more powerful release of dopamine and leads to addiction. The problem of this business model is that it increases the level of misinformation on social networks which may result in radicalization of different social groups. Using this fact, third parties may try to intervene into the election process promoting certain candidates, discrediting others or challenging the election legitimacy.

How can the EU deal with the threats related to technologies and misinformation without sliding into censorship? Instead of trying to regulate Internet content, one of the options is a set of rules aimed at improving algorithms and transparency of data so that the platforms have responsibility for the ecosystem of digital media.

Digital and analog worlds are closely interconnected. What happens online impacts the physical reality and the analog world in turn impacts the digital sphere. These two processes form a feedback loop.

Polarization in Western democracies intensifies both in terms of the challenges – it is getting harder to find common ground – and in terms of the emotions. Many surveys indicate a growing preference for authoritarianism. For example, the survey conducted in 2024 by Pew Research Center has shown that 31% of respondents in more than 20 countries support authoritarian systems.

At the same time, there is little confidence that changes are at all possible. In a recent survey, also conducted by Pew Research, 69% of people polled from 25 countries believed that their political system required serious changes. The public demand for changes is obvious.

While Europe is deciding on how to reset its democracy using digital and offline methods the system seems to have gone haywire. Decades of liberal freedom led to the situation where in some cases it turned into an anything-goes situation. People are tired of it. All they want is basic order and the survey results confirm it.