Athens Democracy Forum - Debate: The Metrics of Democracy

30 September 2021 - 01 October 2021

12:30 - 13:05 CET

Athens Democracy Forum 2021 "Democratic Resilience and Renewal" will be held from 29 September to 1 October 2021.

Despite brutal assaults by populism and the pandemic, the world is regaining a measure of hope. Great challenges remain—climate change, social inequality, polarized politics, fraying economic systems and a fraught relationship with technology—and they need more work than ever before. But the astounding speed with which vaccines were developed against Covid-19, and the resilience of democratic institutions worldwide, demonstrate what people—the 'demos' in democracy— can achieve in a time of crisis. They offer hope that the same determination can now be brought to bear on the unrelenting challenges ahead.

That is the mission of the Athens Democracy Forum 2021: to ask what we have learned from the overlapping crises and how we should confront the economic and social fallout and the formidable tasks ahead. We have seen that democracy can prevail, but only if it is truly practiced, defended, updated and believed in.

Debate: The Metrics of Democracy

The discussion will take place on Friday, 1 October 2021 (12:30 - 13:05 CET), and looks to answer the following questions: How can we gauge the health of democratic governance? Are the existing measures adequate?

Experts from widely used indices of democracy and governance will debate the merits and drawbacks of these tools of measurement: