Democratic Horizons

What are the thoughts, experiments, and concepts being conceived and tested right now, that might define the democratic systems of the future? What is beyond the horizon?

Introducing Democratic Horizons

Hi, thanks for joining, and welcome to Democratic Horizons.

In 2024, more than two billion people are likely to go to the polls as more than half a century of countries are expected to hold elections this year. However, the conversation about democracies is also filled with debate about how to fix democracies. Because democracies are challenged. By polarised and toxic debates, attacks on civic liberties, declining trust, low engagement, and the list continues.

Can they be fixed or entirely reimagined?

All over the world, most of the functioning democratic states had their systems, for the lack of a better word, designed more than a century ago – if not longer. And the changes which have been made since, have been few and far between. It is stating the obvious, but the world has changed massively since then. Especially the role of what we could term the global mass information society, and the way news is produced, consumed, and used. But also many other aspects such as globalisation, markets, demography, and technology – and yes, the generative AI rollercoaster will be considered.

Considering this, and many other things, we’re a small group of futurists, who are embarking on an exploration of the future of democracies. We’ll try to look beyond the now-and-here ideas for change, and instead collaboratively explore the future constellations and ways of organising democratic government.

Over the coming months, we’ll be exploring signals of change, experiments, and ideas – and we’ll be gathering these to create insights, future scenarios, and workshops.

If feasible, we might even invite you to participate in a workshop or to be a guest contributor.

Who we are

The three of us are colleagues in the Futures team at Manyone – a strategy-design consultancy. Democratic Horizons is an interest-based side project.

Kirsten van Dam

Kirsten is a Senior Foresight Strategist with more than 15 years of experience in collaborative strategic foresight. Her focus will be on exploring innovative and alternative methods to involve and strengthen the role of young people and other marginalised groups in determining the future of governance, political systems, and democracies. She aims to promote comprehensive, inclusive, and critical discussions about our desired future – because, without such dialogues, we risk building futures that only serve the interests of a select few.

Julia Reindl

Julia is a Senior Foresight Strategist and Researcher working at the crossroads of foresight and public engagement, particularly focusing on subjects such as climate change. Her speciality is in designing public involvement and creating future scenarios, utilising futures methodologies to nurture different perspectives across a range of audiences. With this focus, Julia will share insights about public engagement using alternative ways of understanding, experiencing, and engaging with emerging issues in the public discourse.

Thomas Noppen

Thomas is a Senior Foresight Researcher, former journalist and editor. He holds a particular interest in the systemic composition of democracies. On understanding forms of governments and society as one big machine, where each part either be replaced or reconfigured – radically. Thomas will share insights and provocations about ideas and concepts that test the limits of democracy.

What happens now?

Well, this is the first newsletter, and you can expect five more – one a month roughly. The newsletter is our main outlet for sharing the status of our research. We’ll also occasionally share provocations – which are short opinion pieces that will help stretch your thinking. So, if you’re signed up, stay tuned. If you know someone who might be interested in following our work, then share this newsletter with them.

Thanks for reading!

Kirsten, Julia, and Thomas

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