Anthony Zacharzewski on Democratic Infrastructure, Participation, and Power
Ep. 52

Anthony Zacharzewski on Democratic Infrastructure, Participation, and Power

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Episode description

Anthony Zacharzewski is the founder of Democratic Society, an organization working across Europe to build democratic infrastructure and improve participation in government. In this conversation, he discusses how participation can become part of institutional design, why democracy must engage seriously with power, and how digitalization and the agentic state could reshape the relationship between citizens, political parties, and public services.

0:00Anthony Zacharzewski's background in politics, participation, and technology
3:10Democratic Society and democratic infrastructure
5:40Building participation capacity inside government
11:01Citizen participation and representative democracy
16:29Beyond direct democracy and national political cultures
22:52Protecting participation from manipulation and corruption
28:15Power, agency, and democratic pessimism
31:19The agentic state and digital public services
38:53Political parties, participation, and scale
50:50A message for democratic innovators