Local Democracy and Disinformation: Factors of Societal Democratic Resilience on the Level of Local Governance

There is no need to emphasize that, globally, democracies are in crisis. In particular, the governments in Central and Eastern Europe face new and ongoing pressures, such as Russia’s continuing war of aggression against Ukraine, political polarization, disengagement, disinformation etc. Under conditions of geopolitical uncertainty and ever-growing spread of scarcely regulated social media and AI, the challenge to reflect reasonably and to make informed decisions becomes pivotal. In terms of democratic resilience, local communities stand in the first line of defense and deterrence. Without recurring to such undemocratic practices as censorship, when local communities are adequately informed and engaged, propaganda, disinformation and false narratives spread less easily, and national security risks are reduced. Disinformation while spread globally tends to affect local communities the most. It diminishes trust in national institutions and destabilizes socio-political situation; thus, it can easily become a national threat. This causes social divisions and conflicts and often the effect becomes nationwide, threatening social and democratic stability and willingness to defend own country. In such a context, democratic revitalization of local governance acquires additional urgency. On one hand, in terms of representative democracy, responsibility of local governments (elected officials and appointed administrators) is emphasized. On the other hand, in terms of participatory democracy, citizen participation and legitimacy and inclusiveness of local policymaking is promoted. Local countering disinformation includes various local (but not necessarily territorially bounded) stakeholders who are (might be) engaged in macro (political-institutional), mezzo (NGOs) or/and micro-level (individual, leader – follower driven) societal self-organization. On the local level, countering disinformation and pre/debunking include early community engagement, media literacy education; transparent and timely communication from local officials (elected and appointed); trusted local journalism, active local communities and national interest (national security and democratic stability) oriented local influencers; rapid correction of false information, etc. Thus, the empirical studies which would unbundle complex processes and structures of local communities and local governance interactions in the context of disinformation attacks might produce the key insights on how to counter disinformation successfully on the local level. This presentation is based on empirical insights from exploratory qualitative study conducted in the Lithuanian local municipalities and among local activists (including various NGOs, active in local communities, with experience of direct engagement and especially in the social initiatives related to national security, and unaffiliated vigilant individuals, influencers). In this research we inquire into modalities of societal democratic resilience, collecting primary data on ownership of initiatives, sites, forms, and instruments of countering disinformation on the local level. The study investigates intricate links between various actors (stakeholders of local governance) and how their pro-democratic informational agency emerges on macro, mezzo and micro-level of organization aiming to identify factors of societal democratic resilience on the level of local governance.