Reviving Democracies by Reconnecting with Reality, Meaning and Plurality

Why Arendt suggests that democratic renewal requires first and foremost a shift in practice

In this paper, I argue that the contemporary crisis of democracy is not primarily a crisis of citizen attitudes or institutional design, but a crisis of political practice, leading to a growing disconnect between action, speech, and reality. I draw from Arendt’s analysis of the crisis of the American republic, in the 70’s.

Arendt’s work provides an essential compass for agents in democratic institutions -be they political leaders, civil servants, journalists or citizens- to better understand the crisis of democracies, and consequently better address them, instead of scapegoating the symptomatic rise of extremes. With Arendt, we understand why it takes much more than fighting disinformation, increasing transparency, reforming institutions or boosting citizen participation to reinvigorate democracies.

From reading her work extensively since more than 20 years, and out my lifelong experience in the European Commission, from 1983 to 2024, I suggest characterizing the crisis of democratic systems as a triple loss, that of meaning, plurality and reality. No communication strategy can substitute for the triple loss of meaning, plurality and reality. This is not an argument against strategic communication, but it is a warning against the illusion that communication can substitute for action. I suggest that Arendt’s concepts of natality and plurality have the potential of reviving democracies from within. With them, we can renew our understanding of freedom and power, and shift our mindsets to embrace reality instead of fighting against it, and to nurture a “trust in what is human in all people”, to enact our plurality.

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