DEMOS is built on the assumption that populism is symptomatic of a disconnect between how democratic polities operate and how citizens perceive their own aspirations, needs and identities within the political system. As such, DEMOS explores the practical value of ’democratic efficacy’ as the condition of political engagement needed to address the challenge of populism. The concept combines attitudinal features (political efficacy), political skills, knowledge, and democratic opportunity structures. In order to better understand populism DEMOS addresses its hitherto under-researched aspects at micro-, meso-, and macro-levels: its socio-psychological roots, social actors’ responses to the populist challenge, and populism’s effects on governance. DEMOS focuses not only on the polity, but equally on citizens’ perspectives: how they are affected by, and how they react to, populism. Politically underrepresented groups and those targeted by populist politics are a particular focus, e.g. youth, women, and migrants. As populism has varying socially embedded manifestations, DEMOS aims at contextualising it through comparative analysis on the variety of populisms across Europe, including their historical, cultural, and socioeconomic roots, manifestations, and impacts. DEMOS develops indicators and predictors of populism and elaborates scenarios on the interactions of populism with social actors and institutions both at the national and the EU levels. Unifying 15 partners from 10 disciplines, DEMOS combines in-depth research on populism and democratic efficacy with action research and pilot projects in order to develop lasting tools and timely policy recommendations; project methods include experiments, deliberative polling, text mining, surveys, and legal analysis. DEMOS places strong emphasis on communication and productive interactions with a variety of stakeholders throughout the project, including policymakers, journalists, students, and the general public.

The objective of the project is to increase awareness of the latest technological discoveries among key stakeholders in the context of social media and convergence. The dissemination will be based on key areas that impact the convergence of social media. This includes scientific, political, cultural, legal, economic and technical areas, to name but a few. This is particularly essential to provide knowledge support, but also stimulate an appropriate debate among the various stakeholders (the public, the researchers, scientific and other policy makers and regulators) on the desirable future policies and frameworks that are required and lacking in the state of the art concerning media and content convergence. Additionally, the project seeks to provide research on and experience-exchange of policy and regulation strategies. The aim is to support the R&D digital programs by spreading the innovative ideas and also the innovated outcomes in convergence. To achieve this, the project will offer analyses and road maps of related initiatives. In addition, extensive research on policies and regulatory frameworks in media and content will be developed, integrating crucial topics such as: the types of regulation that are possible, sensible, and currently implemented, joined with contextual analysis of the corresponding issues; court case study on the types of cases that are brought before domestic courts and their implications on fundamental rights, the ways in which domestic courts review interference with fundamental rights in the pursuit of public interests, and the impact of court decisions on national laws and policies concerning social media and convergence; and future trends and recommendations in the policies and regulatory frameworks in media and content convergence. All of the EU countries will be included, although the involvement of additional countries is not excluded.