Democratic Governance for the Future – An Atlas

Examples from around the world of institutional reforms to factor long-term interests and future generations into political decision-making

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Format Type: PDF
Date of publication: 23/08/2026
DOI: 10.11586/2026015
Edition: 1. edition

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Description

Democracies face the challenge of aligning short-term political priorities with the long-term interests and perspectives of future generations. At the same time, international experience shows that institutional reforms can help integrate longer-term perspectives more systematically into political decision-making.

The atlas presents institutional reforms designed to strengthen long-term governance in Israel, Hungary, Wales, Malta and Finland. It describes their origins, mandates, modes of operation, achievements and challenges, providing a basis for discussion on how democratic institutions can be designed to better support long-term and future-oriented policymaking.

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Youth for Tomorrow

In view of overlapping social, economic, and ecological challenges, policymakers in Germany are confronted with the task of combining short-term responses with strategic orientation and foresight. This often seems to be at the expense of long-term solutions and interests. Added to this is demographic change, which contributes to greater consideration being given to the needs of older people due to structural factors.

With our project, we want to strengthen the relevance of future justice in political and public discourse. To this end, we are creating empirical foundations and strengthening the discourse on the future: socially, politically, but also locally. We work together with young people, draw on their expertise, and promote intergenerational dialogue.