This publication is part of a collection of articles written by experts of a wide range of areas that are related to the topics covered in SmartVote, namely the relationship between young people politics and how information and disinformation flows impact the way they see democracy. In this article Miguel Paisana explores the conceptual framework in which the SmartVote project operates. The SmartVote project was conceived in September 2024 as a collaborative Iberian initiative combining academic rigour with civil society expertise, with a particular focus on young people as a vulnerable and strategically important audience for democratic health. Spain and Portugal share a common democratic heritage — both underwent transitions from authoritarianism in the 1970s and face structurally similar challenges today, including political polarisation, low youth voter turnout, economic precariousness, and the rise of populist movements that have successfully targeted younger generations. Despite these parallels, meaningful differences in political structure, levels of decentralisation, and media trust shape distinct national contexts that the project takes care to address comparatively. At the heart of the project's rationale is a generational rupture in political socialisation. For younger Iberian citizens, engagement with democracy, public life, and news no longer flows primarily through traditional institutions — schools, families, or legacy media — but through algorithmically curated social platforms designed to capture attention through confirmation, polarisation, or both. The consequences are measurable: younger audiences show lower interest in news, higher rates of news avoidance, and reduced concern about disinformation, even as its complexity and reach continue to grow. The emergence of AI — particularly Large Language Models — intensifies these dynamics. While Iberian audiences express curiosity toward AI, trust drops sharply when it operates without human oversight. Crucially, AI systems are not neutral: like all communication technologies, they carry embedded ideological and structural assumptions that users must be equipped to recognise and critically evaluate. SmartVote responds to this landscape by developing media literacy frameworks and AI-assisted verification tools aimed at fostering informed electoral participation among 18–25 year-olds. The project's broader ambition is to strengthen the epistemic foundations of Iberian democracies at a moment of acute technological and political disruption.

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