Concluding observations

In the short concluding chapter, some overall observations are made on the key points that have emerged from the authors’ contributions. Mostly clearly, one of the most critical aspects in the relationship between citizens and democracy lies in the mutation of the forms of identification with democratic political institutions. While in the past such identification was facilitated by the presence of intermediate political forms, activated by groups, sectors and social classes that also produced styles, behaviours, visions and ideologies, today these processes are now ‘skipped’ due to the almost obsoletion of the function of intermediate bodies and due to the process of individualisation that seeks out a more intimate and more direct contact between citizen and political leader, a contact for which, however, a communication system adequate for the function it should perform is indispensable. The chapter also highlights how the imaginary can, in the context of this crisis, positively replace the essential function played in the past by ideologies and can help to produce forms of political participation and governance, within the democratic perimeter, that restore citizens’ sense of security and confidence in institutions. To this end, however, the role of politics, which must resume a role for which it seems to have recently abdicated in favour of other powers, remains indispensable.