Strengthening European Democracy in Times of Global Disruption

Crises destroy – or they force the unthinkable. When Greece stood on the brink of national bankruptcy in 2010, one of the most severe crises since the end of the military dictatorship had to be overcome – with far-reaching reforms designed to put the country back on its feet. George Papandreou, Greece’s former prime minister, is convinced that democracy must not merely be defended in a crisis – it must be reimagined. His guiding principle throughout has been citizen participation as well as transparency, open primaries and the use of digital technologies in public administration. At the Creative Bureaucracy Festival, he shares what he has learnt from this state of emergency: innovation does not arise in spite of the crisis, but because of it – and that public administrations that can reinvent themselves strengthen democracy rather than weakening it. He currently pursues these aims as General Rapporteur on Democracy for the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy at the Council of Europe.