Future
Democracy
Initiative

The Future Democracy Initiative is a new initiative to carry insights from behavioural science into politics and enable the construction of a new democratic vision.

​

At the heart of democracy's legitimacy crisis is the breakdown of the post-war generative framework. This has been delegitimised both at the level of political results and of the foundational ideas that drove them.

​

In a crisis, a new consensus typically forms in response. These reactive programmes eventually become embedded within systems of power and end up creating the next crisis. A better foundation of thought can help us escape this cycle.

​

The framework we present enables a progressive realist approach by being:

• Negative and constraint-based — rather than programmatic

• Pluralistic by nature — protecting against extremism

• Empirical — providing a firmer foundation than purely ideological approaches

• Grounded in the psychological drivers of legitimacy — rather than a reaction to today's problems