29 January 2013, 12:30-15:30

Centre for European Studies, Rue du Commerce 20, Brussels

Today political parties are being challenged by rapid changes in societies, technologies and politics as a whole. Democracy in Europe is now a multilevel governance system with a sometimes opaque interdependence of policies, institutions and actors, such as entrepreneurs, media and lobbyists. At the same time, society is changing, a result of the age of freedom, self-determination and globalisation. Votes for political parties increasingly fluctuate, providing less and less of a stable base because of the fragmentation of society. Representation itself is guided by changing popular moods, referred to in Germany as Stimmungsdemokratie (‘mood democracy’). In European party democracies this has had an impact on all political forces, especially on  the mainstream parties. For the parties of tomorrow the central challenge will be to implement new, realistic forms of participation without surrendering political leadership,

In order to further the discussion how political parties can deal with populist politics, election campaigning, civic participation and new technologies the Centre for European Studies (CES) will host an event in Brussels featuring Dr Florian Hartleb in the afternoon of Tuesday the 29th of January 2013. Dr Hartleb will deliver an in-depth analysis of his study after which he will be joined in a panel discussion by Dr Erkka Railo of the University of Turku (Finland), Dr Wojciech Gagatek of the University of Warsaw and Dr Werner Fasslabend, Chairman of the CES Academic Council and President of the Political Academy of the ÖVP.

Lunch will be provided at 12:30. For further information, including the full programme, please click here. In the meantime, you can register by email to Bernada Cunj at bc@thinkingeurope.eu. We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 29 January 2013!