Friend of Democracy,
What if the promise that the next generation will be better off than the one before it is no longer fulfilled, and subsequently democracy comes under pressure?
Andreas Reckwitz, a professor at Humboldt University Berlin, has three answers as to what needs to be done.
In The New York Times, he writes that we need:
A politics of resilience.
The revaluation of loss as potential gain.
A redistribution of both gains and losses.
“For liberal democracy, the implications are decisive. If politics continues to promise endless improvement, it will fuel disillusionment and strengthen populisms that thrive on betrayed expectations. But if democracies learn to articulate a more ambivalent narrative — one that acknowledges loss, confronts vulnerability, redefines progress and pursues resilience — they may paradoxically renew themselves.”
Interested in reading the whole text? Here is a gift link to the essay (so no paywall) ⤵️
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/opinion/west-europe-america-lost.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sE8.kt0D.R8ZA9e-ZakoK&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
See you in Democracy,
Johannes Eber