They brainstormed responses to these challenges in a room where youth delegates took centre stage. The conference's overall theme was: 'Democracy at risk: how can we revive it?'.

⚡The combination of passionate young people and deliberative democracy might be one answer.

⭕ The passive subgroup from the population who choose to remain passive.. how do we get to them?
⭕ Lack of citizens' trust in the process because the lack of implementation of previous deliberative decisions
⭕ Polarizing topics related to historical or cultural tensions may discourage participation.

At the World Forum for Democracy, organized last week by the Council of Europe, Yves Dejaeghere and Kyle Redman worked with participants to surface these key hurdles.

Together with Ambassador Caitriona Doyle, who spoke to Ireland's experiences, they identified some notable ones:

✍ Learn more about Korea's first democratic innovations pilots on this piece by Jinkyung Baek from the European Democracy Hub: europeandemocracyhub.epd.eu/exploring-wo...

🗞️ More articles on the Asia Future Forum: asiafutureforum-en.kr

With 800 gathered in Seoul —including policymakers, senior government officials, and key leaders in the private and civic sectors— the Asia Future Forum highlights an opportunity for Korean leaders to deepen citizen engagement through democratic innovations such as citizens’ assemblies

These initiatives reveal an expanding space for public participation, especially at the local and regional levels.

Min and Marjan shared international examples from Europe and North America, encouraging policymakers to adopt a strategic approach tailored to their unique democratic context.

Over the last decade, Korean administrations have experimented with citizen engagement and deliberative polling on issues such as pandemic countermeasures and public participation in nuclear energy policy.

These are the strategic directions emerging that will help the deliberative field meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

🙏 Thank you to everyone who made these two days in Brussels so rich with insight, laughter, and purpose.

Many share this sentiment. We need to build alliances —and pressure— across political and social actors, focus on communicating the value over the financial cost, and scale permanent models through diverse funding sources.

Ultimately, we work to build new democratic institutions that are meaningfully shaped by citizens. Over the years, this global community has made impressive headway in refining our methods, raising awareness, and spreading one-off deliberative processes. But do we need a qualitative step forward?

Over 2 days, we played with session formats, group deliberation, and provocative statements. All with one goal: helping us navigate the democratic crossroads to chart an inspiring path ahead. In this exploration, we were reminded that this field is not merely about methods or processes.

🏙️ Planning to come? Register and find all the practical information at www.drd2025.org