Historicum Salzkammergut - Democracy and stupidity

In democratic societies, every vote counts - regardless of the voter's education or ethical maturity. But what happens when resentment and deliberate disinformation campaigns increasingly intervene in political decision-making processes? When populist parties celebrate election successes with simplifications and agitation - and millions of people follow them?

Plato already warned against the rule of the ignorant in the "Politeia". The English philosopher John Stuart Mill, on the other hand, saw freedom of opinion and the expansion of democratic educational opportunities as the foundations for a permanently stable community. Today, the questions posed by these thinkers are being asked anew: how should an open society deal with voters who reject facts, spread inhumane narratives or vote destructively out of protest?

Democracies can only survive in the long term if they find ways to not simply accept ignorance and polarization, but to actively respond to these challenges - with education and participation.
The question "What can be demanded of those who should participate?" has been asked with great urgency since the European Enlightenment. Ultimately, no one should be excluded.

However, the logic of democratization over the last two and a half centuries has also produced barbarism and horror: from the Jacobin terror to the crimes of National Socialism. And even today, in times of digital disruption, the familiar questions are being asked anew: What guidelines, values and behaviors should open, pluralistic societies be guided by? What seems permissible? When and where are the limits of what is acceptable reached? And when does democracy have to be "defensive"?