Global society is facing major challenges: Financial and economic crises, demographic upheavals and climate change. They increase uncertainty and scepticism towards political decisions. One way to respond to these challenges is through participatory processes. This is where the “DELIKAT” project comes in. The aim is to mediate between the world of practical experience and the theoretical-scientific perspective. To this end, the project team is researching the potential of the individual participation formats. The guiding question is whether and how the current political system can be transformed into a cooperative and deliberative democracy. This is done from a democratic theoretical perspective under normative aspects.
So: What is desirable? Furthermore, the researchers develop strategies on how to make existing formats fit more closely to the political system and which new forms of participation can be developed. In the first, analytical phase, existing online and offline participation procedures are catalogued, analysed in terms of their characteristics and systematically classified in a participation matrix. The second phase of the project includes two expert dialogues that refine and supplement the participation matrix and identify feasible development paths towards a participatory-enriched democratic system through the development of scenarios. The third, deductive phase of the project, formulates democracy-theoretical conclusions from the previous results and derives concrete policy recommendations from them.
Duration: 09/2012 – 11/2013
Client: Umweltbundesamt
Team: Nicolas Bach
Project partner: DIALOGIK – gemeinnützige Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Kooperationsforschung gGmbH
ZTG – Zentrum Technik und Gesellschaft, Technische Universität Berlin