Democratic Resilience: Defending Institutions Against Digital Threats

Democratic Resilience refers to the capacity of democratic institutions, norms, and societies to withstand, adapt to, and recover from internal and external threats — such as populism, disinformation, polarization, electoral manipulation, or foreign interference — while preserving core democratic values like rule of law, free and fair elections, civil liberties, and pluralism. Many of the attacks on liberal democracies involve digital threats: PRRPs creating AI agents to increase polarization, the spread of fake news before elections to harm the opposition or demobilize voters, cyber-attacks on public institutions such as governments or parliaments.
This panel is looking for papers dealing with mechanisms to increase democratic resilience. This includes research on the increase of institutional robustness and studies on successful counter measures first, however, applying a broader concept of democratic resilience, we will also consider contributions covering civic engagement and social cohesion.
We are looking for theory-driven empirical research with a clear methodological approach. We encourage qualitative research, quantitative research, and mixed-method studies. We welcome paper proposals from colleagues from all backgrounds and career levels.