Towards a New Democracy

For quite some time a profound de-democratization can be observed in Western societies. This is increasingly described with the term "post-democracy" (Colin Crouch). Economic actors dominate political processes. The chance for people to participate is limited to elections, which serve as feedback, at best, with no binding effects on the elected decision-makers.

Partly in response to these threatening developments more and more people speak up for a comprehensive democratization of society, which goes clearly beyond the representative democracy that has existed so far. What could new alternative forms of democracy look like?

In the course of the event the model of Council Democracy, the practice of grassroots democracy by the Zapatistas in Chiapas / Mexico, and IT-based forms of decision-making, such as Liquid Democracy, will be presented. This is followed by a discussion on what these promising approaches may be able to learn from each other and how they could be further developed to become more influential.

An in-depth workshop will be offered on Sunday.