DemocracyNext

DemocracyNext describes itself as a research and action institute focused on broadening who has power and improving collective decision-making. It promotes three principles — sortition (selection by lottery), deliberation and rotation — as ways to make democracy more legitimate and effective, with the long-term aim of embedding permanent citizens' assemblies and other deliberative bodies in public institutions.

DemocracyNext launched on the International Day of Democracy (15 September) 2022 — it marked its fourth birthday in September 2026 — and was incorporated in December 2023 as Stichting DemocracyNext, a Dutch foundation with charitable (ANBI) status based at The Hague Humanity Hub. Its executive director is Claudia Chwalisz, who previously led the OECD's work on innovative citizen participation and deliberative democracy.

• Assembling an Assembly Guide. Its flagship resource is a three-stage guide to designing, running and acting on the results of a citizens' assembly.
• Institutionalisation. It works with cities and regions to move from one-off projects to permanent assemblies — for example supporting the first citizens' assembly in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, which the city intends to make permanent — and has published on 'From Projects to Permanence'.
• Research. Publications cover multilingual assemblies, deliberation in Africa, the scaling of democratic innovations, and the use of AI in deliberative processes ('Deliberative Muscles & AI', 'Five Dimensions of Scaling Democratic Deliberation: With and Beyond AI').
• Policy proposals. It has argued for a European Citizens' Assembly as a 'fourth branch' of government and for global citizens' deliberation on AI.

DemocracyNext is funded by philanthropic foundations — its foundation disclosure names the Quadrivium Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation and the Evens Foundation — and by anonymous donors. Like other advocacy-oriented institutes, it combines research with promotion of the institutions it studies.

• Advocacy and evidence. Because it campaigns for sortition-based institutions, its research may be read as advocacy; independent evaluation of the assemblies it supports is important.
• Philanthropic dependence. Reliance on a small number of foundations and anonymous donors raises questions about agenda-setting and transparency.
• Limits of assemblies. Critics of citizens' assemblies argue that they can be commissioned to legitimise decisions already taken, that their recommendations are often ignored, and that small randomly selected bodies cannot replace mass participation or electoral accountability.
• Young organisation. Its long-term record in making assemblies permanent is still limited.