Democracy is under pressure. Many people doubt that democratic politics can find answers to the major questions of societal transformation. Whether migration, climate change, the energy transition, tax fairness, or urban development: Here interests collide that do not naturally come together. We are convinced that democracy must continue to evolve. It must show that conflicts can be openly addressed and common paths found. To this end, we create spaces and develop approaches for democracy innovations.
At the core of our work is a multi-stakeholder approach. We bring together politics and administration, the business sector, organized civil society, and academia. For us, good governance means negotiating different interests in transparent, structured processes and pooling knowledge and experience. Together with the stakeholders, we develop actionable opportunities – locally and across borders.
We create the foundations for viable democratic decisions. Social conflicts should be openly discussed and different interests carefully balanced. Our procedures combine experience, expertise, and political responsibility. We weigh arguments and examine their generalizability; then we develop comprehensible recommendations for the relevant decision-makers.
We make participation effective and tangible. People should experience that their perspectives matter, that they can find compromises and contribute to future issues. We also include voices that are easily overlooked in political processes, and we pay attention to power differences in conversation.
We are anchoring democratic innovations. We test and improve our formats in practice and transfer proven approaches to new contexts. Our goal is to develop repeatable processes that municipalities and other institutions can use on a long-term basis.
How can political decisions be formulated that address complex problems and are supported by people with different interests? This question was at the beginning of our work and continues to shape it to this day.
Since 2014, we have been working as a non-profit organization for Good Governance – initially under the name HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA Governance Platform, since 2022 as Berlin Governance Platform – BGP. Gesine Schwan developed Trialogues as a format for political understanding. Peter Eigen He brought his experience from international transparency and governance initiatives. Both shared a multi-stakeholder perspective: Different, legitimate interests should be negotiated in transparent, deliberative processes – with the common good and justice as the guiding principles.
Today we continue this approach. We are developing Trialogues and Municipal Development Councils and apply our experience to new social transformation issues. In this way, we create spaces for understanding and strengthen the foundation for viable democratic decisions.
We are a team from different disciplines, uniting subject matter experts with methodological experts. Our approach is interdisciplinary, and within the team, we foster multi-perspective working.
We work with various private and public funders to drive our projects forward. These partnerships give us access to a broad network of resources and expertise to develop innovative solutions and make our work sustainable.