When Austrian millionaire heiress Marlene Engelhorn uses citizen gatherings as a method to distribute funds, she also highlights the unique potential of foundations in an accelerating crisis of democracy. This should call for self-reflection in the Danish foundations, writes Johan Galster.
On a global scale, the world’s democracies are in free fall, according to the Swedish V-Dem Institute. We’re back to pre-Wall levels. 72 percent of the world’s citizens live in autocracies today, and the OECD’s latest survey shows that only 41.4 percent of citizens in existing democracies trust their governments, and only 30.2 percent feel that the system allows citizens to influence the development of society. Denmark ranks lower than the countries we usually compare ourselves to and is surpassed by South Korea.
Democracy as a form of government and way of life is challenged. In Denmark, the major mainstream parties are bleeding members – with a drop from just over 20 percent of the population in 1960 to just over two percent today.
The same trend applies to our democracy as a way of life – in trade unions, the large supporting civil society organizations and in the leisure and organized communities that Danes were once broadly and representatively an active part of.
Restore trust in the system
The once-great diverse spaces for society’s democratic conversations and communities are shrinking. This leaves room for polarization, disintegration and echo chambers, resulting in growing distrust between system and citizens.
Without active and vibrant democratic spaces across the citizenry, society loses its power to innovate, because those who have to make decisions have a poorer basis for decision-making, and those who have to live the changes do not experience co-ownership of the decisions. Restoring trust in democracy as both a form of government and a way of life will be a vital task for society’s core players in the coming years – including, of course, philanthropic foundations.
When progressive Austrian millionaire heiress Marlene Engelhorn puts a select group of citizens at the center of her own foundation’s work, she demonstrates a crucial point. Because neither the people nor the method are randomly selected.
She chooses a citizens’ assembly to ensure representation and democratic renewal in a foundation. At the same time, she questions whether those who are classically appointed to manage the power and privileges of society are able to take care of this common good – without a real representative presence and democratic control in decision-making spaces.
Deliberative methodology can renew foundations
Engelhorn’s foundation is based on the deliberative method, where a group of representative citizens are randomly selected based on parameters such as gender, age, education and place of residence to scrutinize a given challenge with the help of associated experts and contribute to recommendations for joint decisions.
“Restoring trust in democracy as both a form of governance and a way of life will be a vital task for society’s core actors – including philanthropic foundations – in the coming years.”
Johan Galster
Democracy Advisor and Partner, WeDoDemocracy
The approach is based on the original Athenian democracy, where all citizens took turns in drawing lots for society’s important decision-making bodies.
Today, the methodology has been modernized, stratified and validated based on more than 600 completed citizen surveys and follow-up research across OECD countries over the past 30 years.
Today, the method is used in the European Parliament, including the French, Irish, Belgian, Scottish and German parliaments, as well as in countless municipalities, with cities such as Paris, Brussels and Copenhagen currently institutionalizing citizen assemblies in their operations. In Denmark, in just five years, 20 citizen assemblies and citizens’ meetings have been held. Most recently, the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Copenhagen has used the method successfully.
Across experiences and evaluations, citizens’ assemblies show that members, in interaction with experts and stakeholders, come up with very balanced, responsible, long-term and courageous recommendations that take care of a shared societal benefit. At the same time, the method gives decision-makers a better and more nuanced basis for decision-making, legitimacy and implementation power.
The democratic commitment of foundations
The foundations are basically entrusted with the very special task of managing funds for the benefit of society. Therefore, thank you to Marlene Engelhorn for emphasizing that foundations have the task of ensuring space for democratic conversations with society.
“As radical as it may seem from a distance, when Engelhorn brings citizens into the heart of the foundation’s work, it is an evidence-based method that we know works and ensures better solutions.”
In Denmark, foundations are also exploring new ways to bring more people to the table. Because solutions simply get better and the impact of investments is greater.
Deliberative methods such as citizen assemblies and citizen budgeting must also be obvious places for philanthropic foundations to visit in Denmark. It could also be an opportunity to give the foundations’ governance model a democratic overhaul: Do the foundations reflect the breadth of society in their decision-making bodies, association or member democracy, board of directors or board of representatives?
Danish foundations can choose to support the critical infrastructure of democracy as a common raison d’être across prospectuses, philanthropic activities and charters if they choose to invest in democratic renewal, the values of liberal freedom and the strengthening of the social contract.