An essential element for effective political-administrative responses to crises and societal transitions is politicians’ democratic moral craftsmanship, i.e. the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and practices that enable them to perform their duties with integrity and in accordance with democratic norms. Crises and major societal transitions like the climate crisis, migration, and international conflicts inherently evoke highly complex conflicts between moral values, opposing interests, and fundamental disagreements about what constitutes ‘good’ governance. Inadequate political responses to these normative challenges in transitions and crises erode citizens’ trust and the perceived legitimacy of government. In turn, this creates a downward spiral of societal and political-administrative instability. Democratic moral craftsmanship is needed to ensure institutions can respond adaptively to crises and transitions while remaining resilient in upholding democratic and moral norms.
The DeMoCraft project aims to help politicians recognize, reclaim, and reinforce their democratic moral craftsmanship. To this end, it clarifies central concepts around democratic moral craftsmanship, which are currently inconsistent, incomplete and/or misunderstood. Second, DeMoCraft systematically maps factors, mechanisms and circumstances of politicians’ craftsmanship at local, regional and national governmental levels, in three key arenas in which they operate: that of (1) democratic politics (e.g., the role of political socialization), of (2) political-administrative relations (e.g., the role of civil-servant activism), and of (3) interactions with citizens, networks, and organizations (e.g., the role of commercialized media). Third, DeMoCraft uses these insights to co-design and co-create cohesive, evidence-based sets of actionable interventions (e.g., training, tools, structures, work routines) that facilitate and institutionalize democratic moral craftsmanship in everyday practice. It thereby proactively invests in the long-term resilience of political office holders and their institutions by increasing their adaptiveness to grand societal transitions and polycrises, improving the quality and integrity of their decision-making and policy processes. This subsequently enhances citizen perceptions of justice, legitimacy, trust, and social cohesion.
