“Politics of Grievance and Democratic Governance” (PLEDGE) is an EU-HORIZON funded research project studying grievances and their impacts on democracy. The project is carried out by 15 partner institutions in Europe (Coordinator: University of Helsinki) and involves various scientific disciplines such as political psychology, gender studies, sociology of emotion, democracy studies, political communication, media studies, and political philosophy. PLEDGE examines when grievances develop into anti-democratic politics, marked by outgroup hatred and contempt, cynical stance towards deliberation, uncompromising self-righteousness, and uncivil, disruptive collective action versus pro-democratic politics, marked by in-group solidarity, outgroup tolerance, empathy, cooperative and deliberative decision making, purposive and peaceful collective action; how to understand transitions from pro-democratic expressions of grievances to anti-democratic, and vice versa; how policymakers can effectively address the emotional economy of grievance politics through emotionally sensitive policymaking and new democratic structures and practices that foster pro-democratic engagement with people expressing grievances.

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