Publications
Reports, analysis and policy recommendations for brave leaders and communities.
The European Democracy Shield is a timely and commendable initiative aimed at addressing the EU’s growing democratic challenges. However, it would benefit from a more human-centered approach focusing on citizen participation, civil society engagement, and more nuanced policies on digital regulation.
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The answer isn’t less democracy, but more. New participatory and deliberative processes aimed at involving citizens in decision-making are gaining traction across Europe, but their long-term success depends on how well they are embedded into the public administration and society.
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How can countries strengthen their capacity for long-term governance and ensure that future generations are taken into account in decision-making? In this white paper, we highlight ways to promote anticipatory governance based on the views of key Finnish stakeholders. By translating the Finnish experience into a broader context, we aim to provide universally applicable strategies for advancing long-term governance and promoting intergenerational justice.
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Experimentalism is a ‘hidden third option’ that overcomes pre-existing dichotomies and can update the governance of R&I funding while steering it towards societal transformation.
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What are the most appropriate institutional arrangements for effective governance? How can governance systems effectively operate across different levels, such as local, regional, national, and supranational? How can governments improve their capacity to evaluate policies, learn from successes and failures, and adapt to changing circumstances? By transforming the civil service, we can answer these questions.
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In this discussion paper, written together with Marcos Bonturi, former director of Public Governance at the OECD, Demos Helsinki shares the recent learnings in the field of public governance, identified four characteristics that describe a desirable future government, and presents inspirational governance innovation -cases from Finland, Brazil, Colombia and Serbia.
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How can governments pursue meaningful industrial policy in the 21st century? How can they incentivise new markets to lead the twin transition? How can they create good jobs for future disadvantaged workers? Most importantly, can the current setup of government achieve these essential transformations? In this white paper, we propose a way to think about and implement missions that can unleash them beyond mere policy tools, launching a new type of governance for the 21st century.
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Our collective future depends on the ability of all organisations to not only react to changes in the world but recognise and embrace the agency they hold to intentionally build better future societies. The approach presented in this white paper is Demos Helsinki’s attempt to provide one concrete way out of the methodological dead end stifling the private sector’s capability for meaningful and ambitious transformation.
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Where and how could – and should – blockchain be used in public services? How can these uses be commissioned, developed and deployed in a fair and transparent manner? What needs special attention when using DLT in public services? In this publication, Demos Helsinki collects and shares learnings from experts who assessed four desirable, undesirable, likely and unlikely scenarios of potential DLT-based public services in the EU.
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AI systems can have a positive impact, but at the same time, biased algorithmic decision-making poses threats to equality and non-discrimination. Demos Helsinki conducted an assessment framework and a policy brief that would assist developers to establish an equitable journey for the development of AI services in the public sector, from design to deployment.
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Navigating the societal transformation requires the imagination of future possibilities ahead of us. This report uses a scenario approach to support this process, presenting four possible images of the future and encouraging readers to think about what futures they experience as preferable, or undesirable, and how our actions today can shape our tomorrow.
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An economy of wellbeing serves amongst other things, individual and community happiness, safety, cultural identity, education, and participation. In this study, Demos Helsinki partnered up with SOSTE and THL to assess what an economy of wellbeing in Finland might look like, and what next steps would facilitate a peaceful transition.
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