Event details

Democracy is in danger. A growing and increasingly vocal section of the population no longer feels represented by democratic institutions. Populist forces with obviously anti-democratic aims are experiencing a strong upsurge in popularity and increasingly successful elections. In this seminar, we will look at ways of responding to these trends. What approaches are there to prevent the causes of populists’ success? Can the regulation of online social networks help, for example? How are attempts being made to strengthen civil society and what new democratic institutions are being created to better integrate citizens into the legislative process? What role can citizens’ councils play in this and what possibilities do digital solutions offer? The central question will be what research is needed to develop, test and gradually optimize new democratic approaches. How can such research be designed at a time when democracy is already under pressure?

Workload for ECTS:

ECTS: Participants give a short presentation and write a seminar paper.

Lecturer:

Michael Mäs is a proud sociologist. His research deals with complex systems such as social networks on the Internet, which he investigates using formal approaches and quantitative methods of social research (surveys, network analysis, laboratory and field experiments). He has published in the fields of sociology, economics, physics, biology and computer science, among others.