NCCR Democracy is an interdisciplinary research programme launched by the Swiss National Science Foundation in 2005. The programme 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)? All research projects use comparative analysis of political institutions at the national and supranational levels. The knowledge transfer module integrates the research results into seven practically relevant projects and develops instruments aimed at improving the quality of democracy. The “democracy barometer for established democracies” assesses the quality of democracy in OECD countries. The “civic education” project develops a teaching tool for civic education at the secondary level in Switzerland, which should improve the quality of education in this domain. The Narrative Space project promotes exchanges between researchers and journalists. NCCR researchers are investigating the negotiation of the Aarhus Convention. With education, peer monitoring programme, publications, news and events.(Original source: http://www.nccr-democracy.uzh.ch/nccr/nccr/about)
