Die Zukunft der Demokratie als praktische Aufgabe - Stiftung Wissenschaft und Demokratie

Report on the lecture by Prof Dr Frank Decker: The future of democracy as a practical task

There are many reasons to be concerned about the future of democracy today. Political scientists are therefore increasingly talking about a "crisis" of democracy. But what is the crisis of democracy? What do we actually mean when we talk about "democracy"? How can we protect it in difficult times? And what options do we have to expand democracy with new participation formats?

Frank Decker, Professor of Political Science at the University of Bonn, has been dealing with these questions for many years. On 4 February 2025, in politically turbulent times, he accepted our invitation to Kiel to provide better orientation on these issues with his lecture "The future of democracy as a practical task". The lecture also marked the start of our programme of events at SW&D's new headquarters at Wall 40 in Kiel.

In his welcoming address to the audience, Dr Sebastian Galka, on behalf of the SW&D Board of Directors, drew a link between the significant political and social changes and challenges facing democracy today and the academic work of Professor Eberhard Schütt-Wetschky, the founder of SW&D. Like Eberhard Schütt-Wetschky, Frank Decker also sees political science as a practice-orientated discipline - which may be no coincidence given the time the two spent together at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg in the 1990s.

In this sense, his presentation was also characterised by the desire to provide the audience with broad and well-founded insights: Frank Decker explained the practical challenges facing democracy. He also discussed various proposals with regard to their suitability for improving democracy and securing its future. One focus was on how to deal with the rise of right-wing populist parties such as the AfD.

He proposed a "triad" as a strategy for the democratic forces against their anti-democratic rivals: The basis for this are the measures of Prevention. They should prevent a breeding ground for anti-democratic parties from developing in the first place by eliminating legitimate reasons for protest through good governance. As prevention is no longer sufficient in view of the current situation, he also proposed the strategy of Armouring before. This includes, for example, protecting democratic institutions such as the Federal Constitutional Court from being taken over by the enemies of democracy.

Finally, measures of the Repression This makes it more difficult for anti-democratic actors to translate their political programmes into government power. Repressive measures in particular are often a double-edged sword - think of the discussions surrounding a ban on the AfD, which have dragged on for several years and therefore cannot help to contain it in the short term.

Frank Decker was rather sceptical about measures to expand democracy, such as direct democracy through referendums or expansion through citizens' councils drawn by lot. However, he did not rule out the possibility that citizens' councils at local level in particular could have a positive effect on political culture.

The presentation stimulated a lively discussion with the audience, which many of the participants continued in small groups after the official end.

Those who were unable to attend the event have the opportunity to get an impression in our picture gallery below (photos: Kirsten Richter). You can also watch the entire presentation in the Watch the video or browse through Prof Dr Frank Decker's presentation directly.

The lecture kicked off our series of events entitled "The future of democracy".
Further events in this series are being planned and will be announced in the coming weeks in our Calendar of events appear.