Make Democracy Great Again - Project Summary and Developed Methods

Aims of the tool

- Reflecting on populistic tools and how they are used to influence opinions
- Recognising common features of populistic rhetoric
- Discerning populist and non-populist communication
- Devoloping critical thinking
- Reflecting on active citizenship and how one can take action    against populism

Description of the tool

Though populism is no new concept, its unexpected rise in the past few years has allowed its influence to permeet societies and social structures and bring about changes that are still not fully understood by people and researchers alike.

There are multiple factors that have fostered the growth of populist movements some of which are stagnating incomes as a negative consequence of globalization, reactions against progressive cultural values such as internationalism, LGBTQ+ rights and feminism and the impact of some global shocks e.g. the refugee crisis.

In the face of such dramatic changes in society and the economy, people become more responsive to populist politicians and movements that raise issues, which major parties have either downplayed or overlooked, and that offer simple “quick fix” solutions.

However, to achieve their political aspirations and gain popularity, populist leaders often (but not always) use divisive narratives such as:

· anti-establishment, including distrust of mainstream parties and experts

· anti-globalization, including Euroscepticism and narrow nationalism

· xenophobia and Islamophobia

· cultural conservatism and misogyny

What is more, populists focus on the conflict between” the people” and” the elite” or” the establishment”, all of which are vague terms and can be interpreted differently. They also use rhetoric that stirs up anger among citizens and directs that anger to” straw men”.

In order to respond to these changes in society, the Danish-Romanian Association held a training course called “Make Democracy Great Again” aimed at increasing youth workers’ competences upon supporting young people in their political identity formation and helping them understand the characteristics of populism and its tools. The training course was held between 4th till 13th of September 2019 in Vadul lui Voda, Moldova and was funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.

As a part of the programme of the course, the participants created their own non-formal education methods aimed at enhancing young people’s critical thinking and encouraging them to reflect on their own political identity. The finished methods are presented in the following pages with instructions on how to facilitate them and how to encourage young people to reflect on the learning that takes place.

The methods are suitable for large groups with 15+ participants and the average duration is between 30 to 50 minutes.