What does Mehr Demokratie do?

Mehr Demokratie is the world’s largest direct democracy NGO. Its motto can be broadly summed up in the phrase »if we give up on democracy, democracy will give up on us«. So Mehr Demokratie campaigns, among other things, for the introduction of referenda at every level (local, regional and national); reform of the voting and parliamentary systems; the democratisation of the EU; and greater citizen participation.

Why are we awarding a grant to Mehr Demokratie?

Democracy, one of the most important achievements of the 20th century, is under attack. For the first time ever Germany, like many other countries, has a majority that is unhappy with democracy itself – not just with politics or politicians. The entire world is seeing a decline in democratisation. Mehr Demokratie wants to reverse this trend. The organisation has enjoyed some impressive successes, strikes the right note in the public conversation, and skilfully manoeuvres its way around the political arena. We have already had a positive experience of working with Mehr Demokratie, having been involved in two of their previous projects, namely: »Selbstorganisierte europäische Bürgerinitiative gegen TTIP« (a European citizens campaign against TTIP) in 2015; and the Dutch referendum on CETA in 2016-2017.

What is our mutual goal?

With the »Bürgerrat Demokratie« (»Citizens' Assembly on Democracy«) project, a hitherto unprecedented undertaking at federal level, we want to develop proposals to strengthen and further develop our democracy in close connection with politics. Inspired by the positive experiences of the »Citizens' Assembly« in Ireland, we want to counteract democratic fatigue in Germany by involving citizens in the political decision-making process.