Democratic Persuasion - How to Make the Case for Democracy

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved funding for the new research project "How to Make the Case for Democracy" at the Teaching Unit Digitalization and Political Behavior, led by Prof. Dr. Alexander Wuttke. The project will run for three years and supports two positions, enabling us to explore innovative and empirically grounded strategies to strengthen public support for democracy in established democratic societies.

Addressing a Subtle Threat to Democracy

In many countries, democratic backsliding no longer happens through overt authoritarian takeovers, but rather through democratic elections and the choices of ordinary citizens. This subtle erosion of democracy highlights the need to better understand and reinforce democratic commitment among the public.

A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Democratic Support

Our project is based on the premise that support for democracy is not a binary attribute but a multi-dimensional construct. Citizens may strongly support some democratic principles while holding reservations about others. These fissures in democratic attitudes require different communicative responses tailored to individual profiles.

Evidence-Based Democratic Persuasion

The project draws on cutting-edge research in psychology and political communication to design and test theory-driven interventions. We will explore the effectiveness of these interventions through three complementary experimental approaches:

• Large-scale survey experiments
• Introspective one-on-one Zoom conversations
• In-person group discussions replicating everyday political dialogue

The goal is to provide robust, actionable insights on how communication can effectively strengthen democratic orientations and counteract anti-democratic narratives.

Societal Impact

Our findings are intended to support politicians, civil society organizations, educators, and journalists in developing and implementing communication strategies that bolster democratic resilience. By empirically testing what works, this project contributes to the broader effort to defend democracy from within.

Join The Team

To support this endeavor, Alexander Wuttke will soon be recruiting a PhD student and a Postdoctoral Researcher, each for a duration of three years. The positions will focus on Political Psychology, Experimental Methods, or Computational Methods. Job advertisements will be published in the coming weeks.