Today, there is a widely shared feeling that democracy is in crisis. From the perspective of different disciplines, this working group is trying to gain a deeper insight into this phenomenon and to interpret the obstacles in the areas of legitimacy and the efficiency of the existing order. The perspectives from law, public governance, history, philosophy, economics and social sciences are confronted with each other in order to reach a more thorough understanding.

The working group is departing from the notion that democracy is more than the sum of political institutions. It is a form of interaction between society and politics, and also involves the civil society