A preliminary list of problems which need to be formulated more precisely and for which democratic innovations should be developed includes the following:
Authoritarianism
- Autocratic efforts to undermine or destroy institutional and normative foundations of democratic institutions such as the rule of law.
- The rise of an authoritarian culture: Research performed after the Holocaust, such as the famous Milgram experiments, indicates that people are ready to engage in ethically unacceptable behavior in the presence of an authority. In the presence of power, they tend to suspend their own judgment (authority bias). Based on such research, we can expect that an increase in elite autocratic behavior will be accompanied by a decrease in critical ethical reflection across a population. If corresponding developments change the culture of a society, then democratic backsliding seems unavoidable.
- A widely shared sense that “we are losing control of the forces that govern our lives.”[1]
Social cohesion
- Pernicious polarization as a threat to democratic stability and social cohesion
- The role of populism in political representation.
- Declining civic engagement and social connection when people join fewer organizations, know their neighbors less, and socialize less frequently with friends, all of which reduces opportunities for forming the character, virtues, and attitudes needed for being able to deal with disagreements, conflicts, and decision-making with people whose values and worldviews we don’t share.[2]
- Backlash to multiracial and multicultural democracies and resulting exclusions.
- Erosion of trust in democratic institutions, science, and the citizenry.
- Distraction by political theater or a perception of politics as entertainment reduces attention to important shifts in society such as increasing autocratic behavior or changing social norms.
- Epistemic integrity, misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy narratives, and incentives to push the most extreme positions on social media and into the public sphere.[3]
Problem-solving
- Societies’ limited ability to deal with fundamental trade-offs such as economic equality and economic growth; or the trade-off between the gains societies make from creative destruction when things are getting better or cheaper for all through innovation or trade but particular workers and communities loose out;[4] or health-based arguments for lockdowns and counter arguments that point at economic losses, reduced learning in schools, and increased loneliness and depression.[5]
- Societies’ limited ability to cope with problems when either the framing of the problem or proposals for its solution are contested.
- Simplistic political judgments when people never experience the challenge of collaborative problem-solving in ideologically divided groups.
The value of democracy
- Loss of awareness of the value of modern democracy (for example, for ending poverty and improving human well-being around the globe).
- Participation in governance.
[1] We use “political supremacy” instead of better-known concepts such as autocracy, authoritarianism, or totalitarianism because these are defined in different ways. While we hope that what emerges from PoDS includes a way to better engage with political supremacists, this can only come after the tasks laid out here.
[2] Sandel, M. J. (2022 <1996>). Democracy’s discontent: A new edition for our perilous times (2nd ed.). The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, p. 10.
[3] Putnam, R. D. (2020 <2000>). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.
[4] It should be noted that there is also “elite” or “highbrow” misinformation: https://www.persuasion.community/p/how-to-confront-highbrow-misinformation or https://perma.cc/Y4BC-JEEQ.
[5] See https://prosociallibertarians.substack.com/p/creative-destruction or https://perma.cc/2GFB-QD5R.
[6] Macedo, S., & Lee, F. (2025). In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us. Princeton University Press.