Make Democracy Great Anew

Reflections from the Athens Democracy Forum 2025 by Angeliki Vourdaki.

The Athens Democracy Forum gathered politicians, journalists, business leaders, and civil society actors in the symbolic heart of democracy. But the discussions reflect many open questions around democracy’s future. Working on new democratic social contracts could emerge as exactly the right intervention at exactly the right level. 

Democracy under siege: defend, safeguard, protect

The organisers of the Athens Democracy Forum made clear efforts to reinforce the message that “democracy doesn’t need saviours; it needs to evolve”. But the feeling during sessions was that democracy is under siege. The apparent storyline is that the rise of authoritarianism, AI, and a changing global order are placing pressure on democracy and challenging its mechanisms. 

“Democracy finds itself in the last 2 minutes of a basketball game”, as Maria Ressa — a Filipino journalist who took on Duterte and won — characteristically said. Representatives from younger democracies and the Global South consistently rang the alarm on not underestimating the perils of autocracy and that we should do our best to protect citizens against them. 

European officials, who have a clear mandate and priority to safeguard democratic values, focused on defending the integrity of existing democratic institutions. They spoke about regulating AI, focusing on security and competitiveness, and actions the EU is taking to contain risks related to emerging technologies. 

Meanwhile, voices from North and South America called for renewed cooperation in the international order, which has been shaken by the emerging and uncertain dynamics between big powers. This is especially obvious in trade, climate, and security discussions, they say. However, beneath some of these diverse perspectives, and especially by some North American delegates, lay a quiet nostalgia for an earlier sense of order and the feeling of stability that these could sustain.

What a lot of these viewpoints have in common is that the enemies of democracy are external: the attackers are despots who work against the values of openness, transparency, and equity. 

Democracy needs guardians… 

In all of these discussions, the tone feels almost apologetic: if external threats are so pervasive, doesn’t this imply that democracy is fragile? And, if so, is our agency limited to containing antagonistic forces rather than recognising and unleashing our own force? 

To be fair, self-reflection is difficult at a moment when democracy feels under siege. Many leaders worry that acknowledging the need for transformation could make the system appear even weaker. There is an instinctive fear that by talking openly about how our democracies may have indeed failed in some aspects, one might legitimise their critics and thus push citizens further away.

There is also truth in the argument that defence remains necessary. When journalists are silenced, when elections are manipulated, when disinformation floods public debate, when institutions are bypassed and corruption reigns, the frontline must hold. Citizens deserve protection from the dangers of autocracy. Safeguarding democratic space remains the condition for any future renewal.

In that sense, the focus on external threats reflects an important reality: democracy always needs guardians. But without self-examination, those guardians risk mistaking endurance for vitality; a system can survive without truly living.

…but it also needs a re-launch strategy 

Systems become vulnerable to external threats only when they are already internally fragile, much like an organism succumbing to illness because of its underlying ailments.

The worst-case scenario would not be losing this battle, but failing to seize the opportunity for a democratic re-launch. We cannot focus only on repelling threats. We must be able to focus on increasing the resilience of the entire system. For democracy, this means repairing the internal contract that binds societies together. Democracies lose their vitality when citizens no longer feel part of a shared enterprise — when the act of governing becomes something done for them rather than with them. 

Beyond defending, we need a new practice of construction that goes beyond rhetoric: new forms of participation, governance, and imagination that could make democracy genuinely worth defending. Building open, democratic and evolving societies, begins in the social contract — in the ongoing negotiation between citizens and institutions about who holds power, how it is exercised, and why it matters. 

There is an additional benefit to focusing on renewal rather than defence alone. Communities and societies always galvanise to protect what they deem to be valuable. By showing commitment to citizens, they may join the frontline of defence. Defence thus becomes a self-led and constant effort, sparked by genuine motivation to nurture and love a meaningful collective project. 

Rebuilding democracy means addressing power itself. Who holds it, who shares it, and how it moves between institutions and citizens. These questions are uncomfortable because they touch on loss — for governments, for elites, even for the very outcomes we wish to see in the world. But power that is shared becomes power that lasts.

In CO3’s research, this is what a resilient democratic social contract looks like: democratic systems that continuously adapt while maintaining trust. Resilience is so much more than survival: it is the capacity to evolve without breaking. Citizens grow closer to democracy when they see that participation is not symbolic but consequential. Democracy works when it is practised daily, not just celebrated periodically.

Defenders of democracy must feed it, love it, and share it. In other words, now is the time to double down. 

Making democracy worth the invitation

It is not inconsequential that the main metaphor throughout these discussions seems to be one of war. At least at the Athens Democracy Forum, “fight” was mentioned by 13 different speakers. But, even in war, defence works with clear enemies, and when there is something worth defending. The enemies may be more obvious, but many of us may not feel sure about what it is we are defending in the first place. 

Leaving the beautiful Athens Conservatoire, and taking a stroll in the Athenian old market, one is met with a typical Greek tradition: restaurant employees call on passengers to come in. Whether we stay depends on what we will find inside. 

The same may be true for democracy. We can only achieve so much by inviting citizens in. Is our restaurant, so to speak, in order? Is the experience we offer truly of high quality? Do we give them a reason to stay and come back? 

This is the question that should be on democracy’s defenders’ minds: how to make democracy worth the invitation.