Political trust, the challenges faced by democracies, and democratic innovations

This special issue focuses on trust in political institutions, the challenges faced by democracies, and democratic innovations. Modern representative democracies encounter multiple challenges and criticisms associated with the quality of democracy and representation. Even though public opinion polls reveal a long‑term trend of decline or low levels of trust in the most important representative bodies and satisfaction with the functioning of democracy, citizens still believe that democracy is the most suitable form of government. In recent years, with the aim of responding to these challenges debate has intensified with regard to various democratic innovations, changes in media, the education system, together with new approaches to deal with the different system problems. Alongside all of this, new technologies and artificial intelligence have emerged as a particular challenge to democracy and representation. In this special issue, we look at various aspects of trust in representative institutions and citizens’ satisfaction with the functioning of democracy, and in addition the challenges of and opportunities for increasing political trust.