FRESH THINKING ABOUT DEMOCRACY
A PLATFORM TO DEBATE THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY
WHAT WE DO
Democratic Futures is an independent, advocatory think tank. Our goal is to make cutting edge thinking on the future of democracy widely accessible in a timely, condensed manner. We provide a platform to debate the novel challenges to liberal democracy in Europe, North and South America. For we are convinced: we need to re-imagine democracy.
WHY DEMOCRATIC FUTURES
Liberal democracy and the rule of law are under pressure in many parts of the western world. Authoritarian tendencies, populism and a disdain for experts and democratic institutions - indeed for the concept of empirical truth itself - have become acceptable even in parts of the middle classes.
Despite national differences, great similarities exist throughout Europe, North and South America with a view to the challenges and their driving factors.
HOW CAN DEMOCRACY BE STRENGTHENED?
OUR APPROACH
HOW CAN DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW BE STRENGTHENED IN THE LIGHT OF THESE VARIOUS CHALLENGES?
HOW CAN BOTH BE REINVIGORATED FOR THIS NEW AGE
Democracy is not established once and lives on in perpetuity. Democracy is both, institutional design and civic mind-set. Both require continuous care and gradual improvements.That’s where Democratic Futures starts.
There is a lot of great research to be found in various disciplines and countries. And yet, caught between information overload and busy schedules decision-makers, experts, journalists and the interested public all too often do not find the time to process lengthy studies.
Democratic Futures aims to make cutting edge analyses and new thinking available in a short and poignant manner. We support networking amongst decision-makers, academia and the press. We help to reimagine democracy.
Want to know more about current challenges to liberal democracy and innovative solutions being discussed? In this space you will find our podcasts. In lose order we will discuss with leading experts what is at stake and what might be done. Tune in!
PUBLICATIONS
Want to read more about current challenges to liberal democracy and the solutions being discussed? In this space you will find concise articles and overviews of the current debate.
EVENTS
Want to participate in the debate about current challenges to liberal democracy and innovative solutions? In this space you will find information on upcoming conferences and other exchange formats. Join the discussion and bring your perspective to bear!
OUR TEAM
DR. MICHAEL WESTLAND
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR
Michael Westland is founder and director of Democratic Futures. A career diplomat by training he recently initiated and ran a series of high-level conferences on the challenges to democracy and the rule of law in Brazil attracting more than 4 million viewers in 46 events. Prior to joining the German Federal Foreign Office he served, amongst others, for a parliamentary secretary of state at the German Federal Department of Commerce. He holds a Ph.D and Masters degree from the University of Cambridge, Pembroke College, a Bachelor of Arts in War Studies and History from King's College London and completed two German State Exams in Law with distinction.
PROF. ANGELA SCHWERDTFEGER
SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR
Angela Schwerdtfeger is a professor of Public Law, in particular Administrative Law at Georg August University Göttingen. Before joining the Göttingen law faculty, she was a research fellow at Humboldt University Berlin and a visiting researcher at University of Michigan Law School. Her doctoral thesis on Legal Redress in German Administrative Law under the Influence of the Aarhus Convention (Mohr Siebeck, 2010) was followed by her habilitation thesis on Crisis Legislation (Mohr Siebeck, 2018). In her research on public law in its international and European dimensions, she focuses on parliamentary law, public participation, multi-level protection of fundamental rights as well as environmental and climate change law. She is the principal investigator of the interdisciplinary research project “Can we enforce climate protection in the courtroom?”, which is funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation in its Our Common Future programme. Angela Schwerdtfeger is also a deputy member of the Constitutional Court of Lower Saxony.
ADVISORY BOARD
DR. GEOFFREY EDWARDS
Geoffrey Edwards is Senior Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Studies, Cambridge University and Emeritus Reader in European Studies. He is also an Emeritus Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. He has held research posts at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a number of other institutions including the Federal Trust and Chatham House. He specialises in the European Union, its institutions and its foreign and security policies.
PROF. JEANETTE HOFMANN
Jeanette Hofmann is Professor of Internet Politics at Free University Berlin and conducts research at the Social Science Center Berlin (WZB) on topics such as global governance, regulation of the Internet and the digital transformation. She heads the WZB-project group ‘The Internet Policy Field’ that studies the emergence of new policy fields with an empirical focus on internet politics. Furthermore Jeanette Hofmann is honorary professor of internet politics at the Central Institute of Further Education at the Berlin University of the Arts (UDK), research associate at the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation (CARR) of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a member of various advisory committees.
PROF. THOMAS KLEINLEIN
Thomas Kleinlein is a professor of Public Law, Public International Law, EU Law and Comparative Law at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and a director of the Jena Center for European Studies. Before joining the Jena law faculty, he was a research fellow in the faculty of law and an associate member of the Cluster of Excellence “Normative Orders” at Goethe University Frankfurt and a visiting researcher at Yale Law School and University of Michigan Law School. Recent publications include Grundrechtsföderalismus (Federalism of Rights, Mohr Siebeck 2020) and Encounters between Foreign Relations Law and International Law, Cambridge University Press 2021, ed., with Helmut Aust). In his research on international, constitutional and comparative law, he covers general international law and the law of international institutions, international law and new technologies, human rights, EU law, global constitutionalism, federalism and democracy as well as foreign relations law. He is a member of the International Law Association’s Committee on Human Rights in Times of Emergency.
PROF. JAN-WERNER MÜLLER
Jan-Werner Mueller is Roger Williams Straus Professor of Social Sciences and Professor of Politics at Princeton University. His publications include Democracy Rules (2021),What is Populism?(2016), which has been translated into more than twenty languages, and Constitutional Patriotism (2007). Before coming to Princeton, he was a fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.
PROF. INDRA SPIECKER gen. Döhmann LL.M. (Georgetown)
Prof. Dr. iur. Indra Spiecker gen. Döhmann, LL.M. (Georgetown Univ.) holds the chair of Public and Administrative Law, esp. Information Law, Environmental Law and Legal Theory at the Goethe-University of Frankfurt/Main in Germany. Her research focuses on the monitoring and regulation of digitalization and technology employing manifold interdisciplinary insights. She also serves as managing director of the Research Institute on Data Protection, managing director of the Institute of European Health Politics and Social Law, both at Goethe University of Frankfurt/Main and as director of the Competence Center on IT-Security (KASTEL) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Among others, she has been called into the working group of the academies of sciences on “Digitalization and Democracy”. Prof. Spiecker engages on several boards of international law journals and is co-editor of Germany’s most extensive GDPR commentary. She was elected into the National Academy of Technological Sciences (acatech) in 2016.
PARTNER
Chair of Public Law / Administrative Law
Prof. Dr. Angela Schwerdtfeger
