Engaging Democracy

Democratic Wellbeing means that we all have a voice and choice in decisions that affect our lives.  

However, our evidence shows that a lack of trust is undermining our democracy and its institutions. This will be compounded if efforts to adopt innovative forms of deliberative and participatory democracy, such as citizen’s assemblies, are unable to deliver change and demonstrate impact. 

The UK’s Democratic Wellbeing is not where it ought to be. This is why we undertook a piece of research which sought to strengthen our understanding of participatory democracy’s contribution to democratic wellbeing in the UK.  

Take a minute to find out more about this work and our findings in our short video below. 

We explored and analysed what the barriers and enablers are to more and better participatory democracy in Scotland. We engaged with commissioners, designers/facilitators and participants of recent participatory or deliberative democratic initiatives to inform this work. 

This work was supported by a group of Democratic Wellbeing Champions, individuals from across the UK with diverse experiences of influencing policy across civic life via wellbeing, democracy, community organising and social change.  

For further information about this work, our findings and recommendations, please read our analysis report. 

You can read more about our thoughts on what this work and our findings could mean for the UK and its democratic institutions in our blogs below.