Reclaiming Liberal Democracy in Europe

近年来，人们越来越清楚地认识到，经常被描述为后真相的政治将是21世纪自由民主面临的核心挑战之一。本项目解决了这一挑战的影响。利用多学科方法，该项目将为后真相政治的分析产生概念定义以及操作化和经验指标；说明后真相政治如何构成对自由民主的生存威胁；分析欧洲后真相政治各维度的现状；并利用其关于游戏状态的实证研究结果来制定政策建议，方法和工具包，以最好地应对这一现象的各种表现。该项目是沿着时间和主题轴构建的。在时间轴上，该项目将分三个连续阶段进行，即方法论概念阶段、经验分析阶段和关键咨询阶段。在主题轴上，该项目分为九个学术工作包，从先决条件（这种现象是如何产生的）、表达（它们如何在政治过程中表现出来）和潜在反应（如何减轻它们的影响）的角度解决后真相政治的核心组成部分。该项目的学术工作包从民粹主义、公共领域动态和对政治文化的影响的有利角度解决后真相政治；技术方面在促进后真相政治兴起中的作用；缺乏信任的双重作用，但同时也增加了对高质量新闻的需求；战略性虚假信息是对自由民主的外部挑战；对虚假信息的监管反应的影响；同样重要的是，公民教育和媒体素养在减轻后真相政治挑战方面可以发挥的作用。

In recent years, it has become clear that what is frequently described as post-truth politics will be one of the central challenges facing liberal democracy in the 21st century. This project addressesthe implications of this challenge. Drawing on a multi-disciplinary approach, the project will generate a conceptual definition as well as an operationalization and empirical indicators for the analysis of post-truth politics; spell out the ways in which post-truth politics constitutes an existential threat to liberal democracy; analyze the state of play as regards various dimensions of post-truth politics in Europe; and use its own empirical findings regarding the state of play to develop policy recommendations, methods and toolkits as to how best to respond to various expressions of the phenomenon. The project is structured along a temporal and a thematic axis. On the temporal axis, the project will proceed in three consecutive phases, i.e. a methodologicalconceptual, an empirical-analytical and a critical-advisory phase. On the thematic axis, the project is divided into nine academic work packages that address central components of post-truth politics from the perspective of preconditions (how such phenomena have come about), expressions (how they manifest themselves in political processes), and potential responses (how their effects can and ought to be mitigated). The project’s academic work packages address post-truth politics from the vantage points of populism, public sphere dynamics and impacts on political culture; the role of technological aspects in fostering the rise of post-truth politics; the twin roles of lack of trust, but at the same time also increased demands for quality journalism; strategic disinformation as an external challenge to liberal democracy; the impacts of regulatory responses to disinformation; and importantly also the role that citizenship education and media literacy can play in mitigating the challenge of post-truth politics.