The liberal democracies of the west are in crisis. One reason for it is that their institutions, structures and processes haven’t changed with the expectations and needs of the societies. The result is that our democracies seem to be separated from their surroundings and left behind from the change of time. Therefore we have to ask ourselves:
How can we design a democracy that constantly improves instead of a democracy that stays stagnant?
For us a Learning Democracy is a society that learns faster than problems appear and become dangerous.
We believe that if we work towards the vision of a Learning Democracy we are only right at the beginning of a social productivity miracle, which would make our democracies fit and robust for the 21st century. We know: We can do it better, much better – we can do it together!
To reach our vision we have following mission:
In a school for democracy developers we want to train, equip and support professional democracy developers for such a learning society. They could be the needed experts to foster and guide our joint learning processes. Right now we are planning a summer school as a first prototype, which is planned to start 2019!
We also consult projects, organisations and administrations that want to improve their processes and learning abilities to become more resilient, efficient and content. In the short run, we assist those organisations, but in the long run, we want to spread the idea of learning communities all across society.
In laboratories for democracy development we research what a Learning Democracy could look like and develop and test innovations and methods. Those laboratories are experimental, although practical, as we work together with partners on concrete projects. The European HomeParliaments are our current project that we carry out with Pulse of Europe.
For more information, please visit our project website: