Athena is a scholarly journal that analyses the problems relating to the legal, political, and social changes attendant on globalization, proposing to provide these problems with theoretical answers. It perfectly matches this blog’s reflections and the debates in the annual event Supranational Democracy Dialogue (SDD). One year ago, being co-opted into the Directors’ Board was a big honour. Now, it is an even bigger one to inaugurate an annual section to contributions coming from the Supranational Democracy Dialogue Conference.

Of Course, as SDD is a gathering of scholars, international servants and activists, not all contributions are intended to make their way to an academic journal, yet some fit it perfectly, and I am proud to be the editor of this section and bring them to a bigger audience.

The idea, not foreign to legal, philosophical and political thought, that democracy can also exist in a non-national space, transcend borders and express itself in a broader political area is not new. Since this is not an absolute novelty on the European continent, the European Union will inevitably be a reference, not necessarily a model or a stepping stone towards broader and more widespread democratic spaces. Still, it is perhaps a laboratory where some exciting experiments occur or new unconventional legal solutions are tested. It may seem strange that in an era of profound interconnection and interdependence between economic systems and areas of the world, in the age of global social networks, democracy beyond borders is still perceived as futuristic and even romantic. It is even more so if we consider that national democracy is going through a profound crisis which has manifested itself in the democratic regression underway in many countries around the world and in a growing disaffection towards voting in mature democracies attested by spiking abstentionism. It may even seem that the creation of such transnational spaces is swallowing national democracies, distracting and polarizing people, making them unable to use a critical and positive approach to national problem-solving. At the same time, the globalization of markets deprives states of the lifeblood of tax revenue, spiralling the distance between citizens and political elites. This is also the result of the fragmentation of the political discourse in algorithm-generated “bubbles”, the outcome of political profiling on social media, which allows manipulation, the spread of fake news and an attitude of “we versus them” that legitimizes the dismissal of competences and skills and fuels hate speech and conspiracy theories.

Social science scholars dedicate much under-the-radar reflection to potential remedies. Democracy is not out of fashion or outdated, but it is probably changing its skin. In the 21st century, an era of interdependence, threatened global commons and global issues to be addressed, it is no longer enough to cling to existing institutional structures in the hope of returning them to their previous efficiency level. It is time to look forward. Five years ago, in 2018, the first edition of the Supranational democracy dialogue (SDD) event kicked off at the University of Salento, a conversation among scholars, civil society and creative thinkers on democratic solutions to global issues. The event has grown year after year, attracting interesting voices and prestigious partnerships; after five editions, its path intersects with that of expansion and growth of the Athena journal, created precisely to address these issues necessary for contemporary reflection. Interdisciplinarity, the need to reflect outside the box, and the attentive eye to innovation are the hallmarks of this space, dedicated to the most structured interventions among those presented at the annual SDD event. We hope the journal and the yearly event will continue to grow synergistically. Still, above all, that awareness of this epochal challenge to save democracy by reinventing it for the 21st century grows as well.