Deutschlandfunk: Lessons for Democracy

05 September 2019

The radio station Deutschlandfunk discusses the possibility of Brexit and the political crisis in the UK being symptoms of a weak democracy.

Referring to an interview with the German sociologist Helmut Wilke, the article identifies the fundamental weaknesses of democracies and attempts to link them to Brexit. For example, Wilke argues that democracies today are not capable of being strategic as they are strongly dependent on the next election. Moreover, our current democracies tend to only learn from crises, leaving us unprepared and at the mercy of complex situations that we cannot manage, such as climate change, migration, the regulation of financial markets or Brexit. Generally speaking, he believes that representative democracies need to be reformed and modernised. As a first step, Wilke suggests to introduce expert committees to help parliaments make decisions.
 
The full article in German: Die Demokratie für das 21. Jahrhundert fit machen
 
Sourcing and translation by European Movement International

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