INTERCULTURAL DEMOCRACY TO PROTECT THE FUTURE OF EUROPE(INTERMOCRACY)

Our project aims to:
- foster intercultural dialogue and learning and feeling of being European;
- develop skills and attitudes of young people;
- strengthen European values and breaking down prejudices and stereotypes;
- raise awareness about socially relevant topics and thus stimulate engagement in society and active participation
There are many different levels of social and economic development around the world, and states’ own contrasting histories
of engagement with the people they govern have a huge impact on accepted political processes.
A major focus of a research is to examine the value and future of democracy in a changing world and its role in supporting
an international order increasingly under threat from nationalist and populist attitudes.
“Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are
not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.” Franklin D.
Roosevelt
Most of the recent literature on democratization in Europe has paid insufficient attention to popular understandings of
democracy and the reception of democratic practices. This project will show the articulation of the concept of democracy
with existing socio-political conceptions in contemporary countries. The standard translation of the word democracy means
political cosmology which emphasizes the values of justice, civility and open communication between rulers and subjects,
and involves a conception of sociopolitical hierarchy modeled on the systems. Key ideological features of this conception
include its construction from the bottom up, the singularity of power, regulated competition and nested solidarities.
Democratic practices and institutions as elections, political parties and representation are part of the definition of
democracy. At a more pragmatic level, however, some of the democratization initiatives of the current governments have
given rise to a new popular allegiance to democracy. Our project suggests that more attention should be devoted to the
coherence of democratization initiatives with democratic cultural dialogue conceptions.
Our project, INTERCULTURAL DEMOCRACY TO PROTECT THE FUTURE OF EUROPE(INTERMOCRACY), sets up
intercultural dialogue as a bridging mechanism through which social, cultural, democratic dialogues. It also can engage with
advanced advocacy, justice, and social change. We define intercultural dialogue and provide examples in not-for-profit or
community-based and academic settings of how intercultural dialogue has been applied to conflicts around topics of race
and ethnic nationality, sexual orientation, religion, and culture. We aim practice-, policy-, and research-related actions that
our students can take to understand and use international democratic cultural dialogues.
We have long known that creating democracy is more than a matter of installing the right political plumbing. Constitutions
and voting systems may be democracy’s necessary conditions, but they alone are insufficient. Political machinery, no matter
how carefully crafted, depends upon shared behaviors and habits of mind—what historians and political scientists often call
“political culture or cultural policy.”