SLOMODEMO · High Speed Society, Slow Motion Democracy, and the Dilemma for Democratic Problem Solving

Social acceleration – the progressively faster rate of technological, social, and life-pace change – has created a challenge for democratic problem solving. The demand for rapid and effective policy solutions is ever-increasing, while democratic politics often fails to keep up with urgent calls for intervention. We live in a high-speed society that is governed by a slow-motion democracy. This poses a fundamental dilemma for democratic problem solving: speed up decision making by circumventing democratic procedures, or hold on to slow procedures at the cost of effective problem solving. Either option could further erode public trust in liberal democracy, whose legitimacy relies on its ability to solve problems democratically and effectively.To address this challenge, SLOMODEMO advances a new theoretical and empirical research agenda to understand how and under what conditions social acceleration is negatively affecting liberal democracy’s capacity to legitimately solve problems. The project reconceptualizes liberal democracy as a problem-solving system, advances the theory and empirics of social acceleration, and offers cross-national and over-time studies of eight liberal democracies. This innovative approach enables key contributions on:- the measurement of the extent of social acceleration- social acceleration’s disruptive effects on liberal-democratic institutions and lawmaking- when and why citizens and politicians prioritize fast problem solving over democratic processes and the trade-offs they make- the strategies governments employ to cope with the dilemma for democratic problem solving and to what effectSLOMODEMO provides new theoretical and empirical knowledge and offers valuable insights for policymakers, institutions, and citizens alike, offering a path forward in solving a critical challenge for our time: how to obtain a legitimate balance between democratic procedures and effective problem solving amidst rapid change.