Weizenbaum Report 2023: Political Participation in Germany

Abstract

With the lifting of most COVID infection control measures, the year 2022 offered citizens significantly more opportunities to engage in politics, after the previous two years had been characterized by far-reaching restrictions on public life. In addition, global political events such as Russia's attack on Ukraine and the protests against the authoritarian regime in Iran had a mobilizing effect on the German population, which is reflected in an increasing number of demonstrations compared to the previous year. The aim of the Weizenbaum Panel is to observe long-term developments in political participation and to analyze the digital transformation of civic action. The longitudinal study on political participation and communication, which has been conducted annually since 2019, looks at political participation and civic engagement in Germany. In addition to the changing role of digital media for people's political actions, this year's report investigates authoritarianism as a driver of anti-democratic participation, so-called "dark participation" on the internet (pp. 10-12), and the effects of social inequality on political participation (pp. 14-16). The annual Weizenbaum Report presents selected findings from the representative longitudinal survey, which was conducted for the fourth time from October to December 2022.