(iv) Keep messages positive and hopeful Fear-based appeals reinforce division. Hope and pride in de ­mocracy’s achievements inspire learning and engagement. (v) Focus on liberal-democratic principles Teaching about rights, institutions and pluralism has more lasting effects than emphasising material benefits or na ­tional pride. Reclaiming the word – and the idea Democracy has always been contested. Today, that contes­tation is not only political but also semantic. When popu ­lists and autocrats claim to be the“true democrats“, de ­fenders of liberal democracy must respond not only with policy but also with pedagogy. Reclaiming democracy begins with knowledge , with citi­zens who understand why rights, pluralism and accounta ­bility matter. Our research demonstrates that even brief, scalable civic education can strengthen these values across continents and political regimes. The challenge is no longer whether civic education works – it does – but whether we have the political will to support it. We must treat democratic learning not as a nostalgic relic of the past, but as a living defence of democracy’s future. Democracy will not die because we run out of ideas. It will die if we forget how it works. References Boas, T., Christenson, D. and Glick, D. (2020): Recruiting Respond ­ents via Social Media: Comparisons with Traditional Online Panels. Chu, Y., Diamond, L. and Shin, D. (2024): How Do People Under­stand Democracy? Eroglu, M. H., Finkel, S. E., Neundorf, A., Öztürk, A. and Rascón Ramírez, E. G. (2025): Choosing Democracy Over Party? How Civic Education Can Mitigate the Anti-Democratic Effects of Partisan Po ­larisation, in: British Journal of Political Science. Esen, B. and Gümüşçü, S. (2023): How Erdoğan’s Populism Won Again, in: Journal of Democracy, 34(3): 21–32. International Civic and Citizenship Study(ICCS) (2022): Interna­tional Report. John Smith Centre (2025): Summer Polling 2025. https://www. johnsmithcentre.com/summer-polling-2025/. Neundorf, A., Dahlum, S., Frederiksen, K. and Öztürk, A. (2024): Elections Without Constraints? The Appeal of Electoral Autocracy Across the World, in: British Journal of Political Science. Available at: https://osf.io/preprints/osf/agrjq_v1ld. Neundorf, A., Finkel, S., Öztürk, A. and Rascón Ramírez, E. (2025): Promoting Democracy Online: Evidence from a 33-Country Experiment. Available at: https://osf.io/preprints/osf/ue6qj_v1. Norris, P. (2011): Democratic Deficit: Critical Citizens Revisited. Cam­bridge: Cambridge University Press. Öztürk, A., Finkel, S., Neundorf, A. and Rascón Ramírez, E. (forth­coming 2025): Keep Positive And Defend Democracy: Framing Demo ­cratic Messages Under Authoritarianism, in: European Journal of Polit­ical Research. Available at: https://osf.io/preprints/osf/fqn5g_v2ism. Öztürk, A., Finkel, S., Neundorf, A. and Rascón Ramírez, E. (2024): Mobilizing for Democracy Under Authoritarianism: The Power of Social Media Campaigns. Available at: https://osf.io/preprints/osf/g5cya_v2 Tugend, A. (2025): Civics Education Struggles, Even as Government and Politics Saturate Daily Life, in: The New York Times, 7 October. Yameogo, S., Neundorf, A. and Öztürk, A. (forthcoming 2025): ­Promoting Democracy in the Context of Terrorism: Experimental Evi ­dence from Burkina Faso, in: Political Science Research and Method. Available at: https://osf.io/preprints/osf/b4hju_v1. Reclaiming democracy through ­online civic education 5