Key skills in and for digital democracy
Democracy and digitalization: a tense relationship
Digitalization influences democracy in many different ways. On the one hand, social networks promote anti-democratic tendencies such as hate comments, shit storms, fake news and conspiracy theories that polarize the political debate. Filter algorithms and AI applications reinforce these dynamics. On the other hand, digital participation approaches offer the opportunity to compensate for the weaknesses of representative democracy. Projects such as the Conference on the Future of Europe show how digital democracy can activate tens of thousands of citizens and involve them in the legislative process.
With this project, we are creating a program at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) that enables students to develop key skills in the field of digital democracy. At the same time, a platform is growing here on which projects and expertise at KIT are bundled and made visible.
We are putting digital democracy in the spotlight!
On February 12 and 13 2026, the Digital Democracy Camp entered its second round, this time lasting two days.
The focus of this BarCamp was on e-participation—in other words, the question of how digital participation can make our democracy more open, inclusive, and sustainable.
To the review
Alexa M. Kunz is addressing this question together with other experts from science and business as part of the Future Skills 2030 task force. The topic of "democratic culture" and the associated educational mandate for universities play an important role in the development of the scientific report and of the new framework.
To the new Framework
Sarah Herrmann and Daniel Geiser from the Digital Democracy project held a workshop entitled "Your own chatbot made easy: basics & tips" as part of the digital thesis day on July 17 2025. They explained the advantages and disadvantages of using chatbots and took a look at the KIT guidelines.
Read more
What do digitalization and democracy have in common? With "Digital Democracy" (Digi D), a project aims to create the opportunity to deal intensively with the challenges and opportunities of digital democracy - the "Digital Democracy Camp" (DDC) took place on 23.5.25 and offered an opportunity to make a difference together on site.
Read more
Resources
Here you will find publicly accessible educational resources on the topic of (digital) democracy:
E-participation, open government and online elections
More Info
The House of Participation podcast, HoPcast, regularly places the work of the competence center in a broader context and discusses it.
More Info
This paper outlines a long-term scientific vision for digital democracy. It is to be developed in a democratically sound manner through comprehensive research.
More Info
We would like to thank the Lage der Nation editorial team for their support in providing the episodes.
More InfoOur cooperation partners
Democracy thrives on community. That is why we are delighted to have partners and sponsors who support us in the project.
Education at KIT for providing learning materials.
on the normative foundations of democracy.
Foundation for providing learning materials.
The lpb supports us by providing content for the
project's Ilias course.
supports us with learning materials.
the support of the House of Participation.
Project members supported us by organizing a
themed table on citizens' councils at the DDC.