Inclusion of People in Decision-Making

Abstract

Reflecting on the May 2019 European Parliament elections, the EU democratic ‎institutions are in need of efficiently responding to the discrepancies between‎ public agendas and policy-making (as shown in the Macedonia naming‎ dispute), and the threatening dynamics of authoritarian populism, as well as‎ to unpredictable reactions from diverse groups and citizens, especially from ‎the neglected, excluded and marginal ones. These citizens cannot handle complexity‎ and react by voting for protest candidates/movements and supporting ‎radical, yet oversimplified and inadequate, solutions to complex problems.‎ Given the potentiality of crisis cascades and that an over-standardized “one‎ size fits all” approach does not work anymore, the EU policy-making experts ‎should arguably turn their analytic attention to existing drivers of political ‎destabilisation by adopting new knowledge bases and sources. This pertains‎ to a fresh theoretical understanding of nonlinear sociopolitical phenomena‎(from populist reactions of any kind to social media behaviours), that is, a‎ deeper, complexity-friendly approach drawn from new scientific advancements‎ and coupled with innovative policy designs, aimed to rebalance the‎ system and to defend the European project against further failures.‎