Podiumsdiskussion: Wie verwundbar ist unsere Demokratie?

In the organizer's words:

After the elections is before the elections: Donald Trump has just been re-elected president in the USA. On their own doorstep, three eastern German states are dealing with difficult government formations, while the premature end of the "traffic light" in the federal government means that early elections are necessary. The outcome is open. The democratic system is being put to the test. The Free State of Thuringia, where the constituent session of the state parliament ended in chaos and the state constitutional court had to intervene, is a perfect example.

All of this is reason enough to seek a joint discussion. That's why Dr. Jasmin Pfeifer from the Institute of Linguistics at Heinrich Heine University, who has been leading a citizen science research project based in Thuringia since 2020, is hosting a public panel discussion at the university building on Schadowplatz in Düsseldorf in cooperation with Dombert Rechtsanwälte, a law firm specializing in administrative and constitutional law.

There, the book author ("Die verwundbare Demokratie") and founder of the Verfassungsblog, Maximilian Steinbeis, will present findings from the much-discussed "Thuringia Project", in which lawyers and political scientists have researched the vulnerability of our democratic institutions using the example of Thuringia and proposed solutions on how to make the democratic system "weatherproof".

Maximilian Steinbeis will be joined by Prof. Dr. Stefan Marschall, Professor of Political Science at HHU and author of several standard political science works on parliamentarianism and the political system in Germany. As the scientific head of Wahl-O-Mat research in Germany, Marschall can also report on election campaigns in digital times and the influence of Wahl-O-Mat on voting decisions.

Together, the panel guests will address the currently pressing questions: What influence do online election campaigns, Wahl-O-Mat & Co. have on election results? What can we learn for the federal government from the studies on Thuringia - are our institutions fit for the crisis? What remains to be done?

After the panel discussion, there will be an opportunity to ask questions and discuss with the panel guests. The discussion will be followed by a reception where the discussions can be discussed in greater depth.