Stable liberal democracies require citizens' active participation and engagement with the principles of democracy and liberalism. Our contemporary European society, and the peace and prosperity it has provided for its members for decades, is based on institutions that ensure the rule of law, and the legitimacy, reliability and efficiency of those institutions are rooted in public trust in them. People participate in elections and cast their votes because they believe that their voice matters. Individuals and parties enter the political field because they believe that they have the opportunity to gather public support and represent certain constituencies and ideas in decisions making processes. Think-tanks and civil society organisations develop, promote and advocate for certain agendas because they believe that citizens and their organisations have the right and are able to shape public policy. If trust in the institutions constituting the backbone of our liberal democracies decreases, it undermines the foundations of our society. The fewer people cast their votes in elections, the less legitimacy an elected government has, and the fewer voices are heard. The fewer think that it’s worth taking part in politics, the less diverse decision-making bodies become, therefore the less they can reflect on the needs and priorities of different constituencies. The fewer organisations believe that they can make an impact on formulating public policy, the less inclusive and open-minded a government (national or local) becomes. 5 Editor’s note Understanding and engaging a new generation - a key to a liberal democratic future Approximately over the last decade, we have seen the rise of populism around the globe; it’s enough to think of the success stories of Giorgia Meloni in Italy, of Mateusz Morawiecki in Poland (even if his success story seems to have come to an at least partial end in 2023), of Viktor Orbán in Hungary, or of Donald Trump in the United States. Populism is not an ideology, but a political instrument, and one of its many characteristics is that it offers very simple solutions to deeply complex issues in order to appeal to voters. The promise of simple and easy solutions is most of the time a false one: the erection of walls and fences at borders doesn’t solve the issue of migration; occasional state interventions in response to economic hardships can’t resolve systemic problems of national economies; or, to mention one of the most pressing issues of our time, the suggested response to which is becoming dangerously more and more prevalent among populist leaders and political groups, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine doesn’t answer the question of how long-term peace could be achieved in the region, and certainly doesn’t answer the challenge to European and global security and prosperity posed by an aggressive authoritarian leader. And yet, probably the biggest problem with the false promises of populism is not that they are false, but that they undermine trust in liberal democratic institutions. Why should we care about international law and institutionalised cooperation within the European community in connection with migration if building a wall resolves all our problems? Why should we care about and protect the free market if we can rely on our respective state’s and government’s wisdom when it comes to protecting our economic interests? Why should we care about the unity and aligned policies of NATO and the European Union if the war in Ukraine can be so easily brought to an end? 6 European Liberal Forum X Republikon Institute Understanding and engaging a new generation - a key to a liberal democratic future As we stated above, our contemporary European society is based on institutions and the public trust in them. This has been the situation for decades, but with the rise of populism, and with the rise of political forces challenging those institutions and public trust to pursue short-term political gains, there is no guarantee that it will stay so for the future. It depends on the younger generations to keep our liberal democracies alive, therefore there are hardly any more important fields of study than that of the youth’s attitudes, perspectives and priorities. First, we need to understand what young people, most of them first time European voters in the 2024 European Parliament elections, consider to be the most important issues affecting them either individually (such as housing, costs of living, or opportunities in education), or as members of a European and a Global society (such as wars, macroeconomic challenges, or climate change). Then, we must take steps in the direction of increasing their engagement and involvement in attempting to address those issues within the liberal democratic institutional frameworks. In 2024, with the support of the European Liberal Forum, the consortium of Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Projekt: Polska! and Republikon Institute cooperated to conduct surveys among Italian, Polish and Hungarian youth (respectively) to have a better understanding of what issues young European citizens care about the most, and how much they trust they have in existing institutions (from local civil society organisations and political parties to national and international organisations and decisionmaking bodies). The findings of these surveys, which were presented in Budapest on 16 October 2024, at the conference Do Youth Want the Future? give the body of the three papers included in this publication, but the papers’ intention wasn’t only to enrich our knowledge on youth attitudes (not that it wouldn’t have been a noble cause in itself). The aim of this publication’s authors also was to interpret the surveys’ findings, to give plausible explanations to why young European citizens have the fears, 7 Editor’s note Understanding and engaging a new generation - a key to a liberal democratic future concerns, interests and priorities they have, and to come up with policy recommendations for decision-makers (at many different levels) to consider in order to contribute to the long-term success of liberal democracies. We can’t take the youth’s commitment to liberal democratic values for granted: the future certainly belongs to the young, but it’s everyone’s responsibility to make sure they take ownership, and shape it in a liberal democratic way.
The full study can be read here.