Democracy narratives: what are they and how do they link to democratic engagement?

Democracy needs engaged citizens. How can SBC)practitioners support such engagement? With democratic norms increasingly under threat, this session explores how narratives are formed, shifted, fostering engagement by linking the stories people hold to the behaviors they enact. The workshop draws on three dominant approaches to understanding narratives and democratic engagement. The first centers on message content and communication strategies, emphasizing how pro-democracy messages can be effectively framed to resonate with diverse audiences. The second approach highlights systemic and structural factors that shape democratic behavior, including power dynamics, civil society roles, and conditions that increase or decrease public support for democratic norms. The third approach, rooted in behavioral science, focuses on the interaction between message, context, and the individual, exploring how people interpret information and how narratives guide decision-making and action. Bringing these perspectives together, the session asks: How can we communicate about democracy in ways that deepen engagement? What makes narratives powerful enough to inspire action-and what action exactly? How does narrative influence translate into concrete democratic behaviors? Participants will explore these questions to inform more effective, behaviorally grounded approaches to pro-democracy communication. This session draws on Busara's partnership with the Democracy Narratives Alliance, coordinated by People Powered.