Research Area Inclusive Democracy

The third field of study focuses on empirical, normative as well as practical political concerns regarding the possibilities and limits of democratic problem-handling and conflict regulation using the example of varying policy fields. The central question is: How can different forms of institutional and civil societal conflict regulation and the interplay between them contribute to the resolution of societal challenges and prove to be conducive to the stability of democracy? Research will particularly focus on different strategies of inclusion and interaction between civil society and democratic institutions. The focus will on the one hand be on complex policy fields which bear high potential for political conflict (e. g. science, technology, environmental and sustainability policy). On the other hand, research will focus on societal acceptance of ‚subtle’ policy processes such as the digtalization and mediatization of modern democracies. Apart from covering conceptional and methodological issues of policy analysis, research in this field of study will be concerned with controversies regarding the use of application-oriented empirical findings in both political decision-making processes as well as public debate.