On 10th October 2019 the high-level expert seminar “How to promote open society values in a politically polarized society” took place at the conference room of the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw.
The emphasis of the event was the presentation of the key comparative and Polish findings from the research project Voices on values: How European publics and policy actors value an open society. The project was carried out in six EU countries by the Open Society European Policy Institute and the German think-tank d|part with local partners (including IPA in Poland). The results were presented by Dr Jan Eichhorn, Research Director at d|part, and Filip Pazderski, senior analyst at IPA.
Dr Heather Grabbe and Dr Jacek Kucharczyk commented on the presentations and invited participants to discuss several important practical questions: How can we strengthen the attachment to open society values, while reducing people’s fears? What narratives can opinion leaders and decision makers use to support open society values effectively, without exposing themselves to easy attacks from authoritarian populists? What strategies of promoting such values and diminishing support for closed society values have been used in other countries and what initiatives can we expect from the new European institutions?