On February 11 and 12, the PRIF - Leibniz Institute for Peace and Conflict Research, together with the “Normative Orders” Research Center, Goethe University and other academic partners from Frankfurt and Hesse, hosted the prominent conference “Democratic Cohesion” in Frankfurt's Paulskirche and at Goethe University. The aim of the conference was to discuss current challenges for democracy, its research and its actors and to involve the public in the highly relevant exchange between research, specialist practice and politics.
The frequently cited “crisis of democracy” is often linked to the statement that social cohesion is at risk and needs to be strengthened. The “Democratic Cohesion” conference set itself the goal of determining the current situation and addressed the question of which forms of cohesion are characteristic and desirable for a democracy. It combined international academic debates with insights into empirical research and - not least - gave visibility to projects and organizations promoting democracy.
The festive event in Frankfurt's Paulskirche on February 11, 2025 marked the start of the conference. In his keynote speech “What does normalization mean?”, political scientist Jan-Werner Müller, Professor at Princeton University, referred to the special processes by which right-wing populist or right-wing extremist ideas penetrate democratic convictions: “It is also certain that once normalization has taken place, it can hardly be reversed - and not only among the supporters of the party responsible for normalization, but sooner or later among the population as a whole.” On the subsequent panel, the Hessian Minister of Science Timon Gremmels, Nicole Deitelhoff, Rainer Forst, Director of the “Normative Orders” Research Centre at Goethe University, and Jan-Werner Müller discussed the challenges and forms of democratic cooperation in times of political polarization. The keynote speech and the subsequent panel discussion are available in full length on the PRIF YouTube channel.
At the conference on February 12, 2025 at Goethe University, further topics from the field of democracy research were discussed: The “Radicalization and Resilience” panel debated patterns of extremism that are harmful to democracy. Under the title “Institutions and Innovations”, the second panel presented and discussed various approaches for new democratic processes with greater proximity to citizens. The final panel, “Populism and Polarization”, debated the questions of how divided German democracy and society actually are and which forms of cooperation are still possible and necessary. At the Market of Opportunities, which lasted several hours, over 20 organizations and projects from the Hessian democratic landscape offered practical insights into the facets of regional democracy promotion. Some of these market impressions are available as YouTube shorts on the conference website. The entire second day of the conference is also available on YouTube.
The event was coordinated and organized by the PRIF - Leibniz Institute for Peace and Conflict Research in cooperation with the Research Institute for Social Cohesion - Frankfurt location, the Research Center for Normative Orders at Goethe University, Goethe University and the Hessian University of Applied Sciences for Public Management and Security. The conference is part of the newly launched program “Strengthening Democracy Research Hesse”, with which the Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Arts and Culture (HMWK) supports various formats of democracy research and promotion. Our conference website offers recent press reviews as well as photo galleries with diverse impressions of both conference days.