dr. K.T.E. Jacobs (Kristof)

Kristof Jacobs (Belgium) is an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science. His research focuses on contemporary challenges to democracy, their consequences and the responses to them.

1. Challenges. Contemporary democracies are under great pressure nowadays. In established democracies the quality of democracy risks being eroded by the rise of populist parties and the increase of ‘angry’ populist citizens.

2. Consequences. These challenges can cripple governments, lead to fragmentation and a lower legitimacy of decisions taken by governments. Moreover, because populist citizens do not feel heard, their anger can boil over and lead to illegal and ultimately violent action as a last resort (cf. protests against windmills and Black Pete).

3. Responses. In response to populist parties, governments often embark on changes of the electoral system. Regarding populist citizens, the criticism that governments do not sufficiently listen to angry citizens, can lead to democratic innovations to open up the democratic procedures. However, we do not know whether such democratic innovations help or not. This puzzle is my current research focus.

• Democratic challenges, populism, democratic innovations

• Political Science