Status: activeType: 📢 advocacyCountry: Germany 📍 Show on map Website: www.democracy-international.org

Status	active
Type	📢 advocacy
Country	Germany
Location	Cologne, Germany · Show on the Democracy Map →
Website	www.democracy-international.org
Contact	contact@democracy-international.org +49 221 669 66 50 Contact form ↗
RSS feed	www.democracy-international.org/rss.xml
News page	www.democracy-international.org/news
Concepts	Direct Democracy Deliberative Democracy Participatory Budgeting Citizens Assembly Sortition
Last activity	2026-09-28 dod Website confirmed active — news through Sept 2026. Added 4 upcoming events from events page (Democracy Camp Vic, Shaping Democracy 2026, General Assembly/15th anniversary, Democracy Explorers Ljubljana) not previously in events:. Contact block already complete, no change.

Democracy International

Democracy International is a Cologne-based NGO registered as a German e.V. (Eingetragener Verein), founded in 2011. It advocates for direct democracy and citizen participation at local, national, and global levels, combining policy advocacy, support for activists, published research, and international convening.

The organisation organises the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy, a recurring international conference for practitioners and researchers. The 2026 Global Forum is scheduled for Gaborone, Botswana — the first time it will be held in sub-Saharan Africa. Democracy International also publishes research on referendum systems, citizen initiative mechanisms, and democratic reform globally.

They also design and run Citizens' Panels at the European level. Their EU for Global project (closed April 2026) engaged 665 citizens across 16 Citizens' Panels in eight EU member states — Germany, Romania, Malta, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Latvia, and Bulgaria — on the question of the EU's role and responsibility in the world. The closing event, LichtLabor Demokratie, was held at the Kulturbunker Köln-Mülheim (source).

Links

• Website: democracy-international.org

See also

• Direct Democracy
• Citizens' Assembly
• Sortition

Upcoming events

• 2026-10-14–2026-10-18 Democracy Camp 2026 — Vic, Spain — youth exchange on participation, rights, inclusion and Europe
  Sourcing: High

  The Democracy Camp is your five-day intercultural exchange on youth participation, rights, inclusion, and Europe – and the interconnections between them.

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• 2026-11-19–2026-11-21 Shaping Democracy 2026 — three-day conference for citizens, activists and participation practitioners, CologneFlagship-style public conference
  Sourcing: High

  Through interactive workshops, discussions, exhibitions, and public events, Shaping Democracy 2026 brings together citizens, activists, researchers, local government representatives, and participation practitioners to share and connect.

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• 2026-11-21 General Assembly of Democracy International e.V. — coinciding with the organisation's 15th anniversaryAnnual General Assembly, 15th anniversary
  Sourcing: High

  We warmly invite you to Democracy International's General Assembly on Saturday, 21 November 2026, at 13:30 CET.

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• 2026-12-08–2026-12-11 Democracy Explorers — study trip to Ljubljana on direct democracy and citizen participation in Slovenia
  Sourcing: High

  During our stay, we will meet with Slovenian civil society organisations, researchers and other local actors working on direct democracy, participation and democratic rights.

  ↗ View source🗃️ Archived copy

History

• 2011-06-01 Formally registered as an association, building on a loose network dating back to 2002Founding of the organisation
  Sourcing: High

  formally established in June 2011

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• 2026-08-26–2026-08-30 Democracy Camp 2026 Bulgaria — Erasmus+ youth exchange for 70+ young Europeans on democracy and media, Sofia/Veliko Tarnovo
  Sourcing: Medium⚠ Unverified

  No note, quote, or fragment behind this citation yet — click through to verify manually.

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• 2026-10-07–2026-10-10 2026 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy — Gaborone, BotswanaFlagship conference/summit
  Sourcing: High

  In 2026, the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy heads to Southern Africa for the first time.

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