Societies change - and democracy has to adapt.
The future of democracy is the innovative combination of
representative, deliberative and direct democratic practices.
Prof. Dr. Brigitte Geissel

Welcome to the website of the Research Unit 'Democratic Innovations' at Goethe University Frankfurt, founded 2012 and chaired by Prof. Brigitte Geissel. We are an international team of scholars investigating new and innovative forms of democracy from a wide theoretical and methodological spectrum. We pool expertise on democratic innovations collaborating within a broad network of international scholars. We provide guidance and support to practitioners and policy-makers in their search for democratic renewal.

Democratic systems are ever-shifting constellations of actors, practices and institutions. Currently, representative democracy is challenged by a fundamental crisis and by increasing demands for novel forms of political involvement. Our aim is to understand, compare, and assess these developments. Furthermore, we develop scenarios for future democracies. Our approach:  

- we comparatively analyse effects and backgrounds of democratic innovations in representative democracy (Participatory Innovations, Background & Effects)

- we develop scenarios for the future of democracy  (Scenarios for the Future of Democracy)

- we messure how citizens, politicans and scolars perceive democracy and scrudinize their process preferences (Perceptions of Democracy)