Building Trust and Reinforcing Democracy: Preparing the Ground for Government Action sets out the core analysis behind the Reinforcing Democracy Initiative of the OECD Public Governance Committee. The Initiative builds on the 2021 and 2022 OECD Ministerial Council Statements and OECD Members’ vision for the Organisation for the next decade. It has the dual goal of reinforcing democratic governance in established democracies and protecting it from existing and emerging threats, highlighting that democratic governance has proven to be the best institutional system for the protection and promotion of individual rights and freedoms and for allowing long-term sustainable gains in well-being.
Recognising key trends such as low levels of trust, greater polarisation and larger groups dissociating themselves from traditional democratic processes in their countries, the OECD Public Governance Committee launched the Initiative in the spring of 2021. The Committee collectively identified three common governance challenges for advanced and mature democracies: i) combating mis- and disinformation, ii) enhancing representation, participation and openness in public life and iii) strengthening open democracies in a globalised world: embracing the global responsibilities of governments and building resilience to foreign influence. In addition, the Initiative incorporates two horizontal themes that span all three pillars: 1) “governing green”, or the capacity to respond to climate and other environmental challenges and 2) transforming public governance for digital democracy. This publication brings together the background papers developed on each these five themes. Along with the report Building Trust to Reinforce Democracy: Key Findings from the 2021 OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions, they underpin the discussions at the OECD Public Governance Global Forum and Ministerial meeting on Building Trust and Reinforcing Democracy in Luxembourg on 17-18 November 2022 and prepare the ground for future action by governments.
The background papers that make up this publication were approved and declassified by the Public Governance Committee on 14 October 2022 and prepared for publication by the Secretariat. Action Plans were developed by the Committee on three of the five themes. Further information can be found at www.oecd.org/governance/reinforcing-democracy/.