The National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Democracy is a multi-disciplinary research program launched by the Swiss National Science Foundation in 2005. The program examines the key challenges to democracy today and traces them to two major trends: globalization and the growing influence of the media on politics.

The NCCR’s basic research questions are: How are established democracies changing under the conditions of globalization and the mediatization of politics? And how can democracy be promoted horizontally (to non-democratic countries) and vertically (to supra-national regimes like the EU, the WTO, etc)? More

Open position: Ph.D. student

The NCCR project "The Mediatization of Political Decision-Making" is seeking a Ph.D. student. Starting date: 1 March 2010 or as soon as possible.

Financial crisis and democracy

Conference organized by the Zentrum für Demokratie Aarau (ZDA) on 18/19 March 2010 at Kultur- und Kongresszentrum Aarau.

How democratization can jeopardize peace

Interview (in German) with Judith Vorrath in ETH Life on the preconditions of a peaceful democratization process after civil wars.