Aim and relevance

This graduation project explores how young people may relate to democracy in

2035 and how design can support them in recognising, practising and contributing

to democratic life. The project starts from growing concern about democratic

decline. International research describes continuing autocratisation and pressure on

democratic rights, representation and participation (Nord et al., 2025; International

IDEA, 2025). In the Netherlands, democracy remains relatively strong, while trust in

politicians and the House of Representatives has declined substantially (CBS, 2026).

Rather than approaching democracy only as a political system, this project

understands it as a way of living together. Young people encounter democracy

not only through elections and institutions, but also by follwing rules, having

disagreement, when belonging to a group, when feeling influence of your context and

being responsible for the things happening in your life. This perspective is especially

relevant during adolescence, when democratic attitudes develop alongside identity,

autonomy and relationships with peers (Van der Meer et al., 2024; Meeus, 2011).

ProDemos, a Dutch organisation that provides education about democracy and the

rule of law, forms the design context for exploring what this could mean for

democratic education.

Method

The project follows the Vision in Product Design approach (Hekkert & Van Dijk,

2011), using design to first understand and reframe the context before developing

interventions. The existing ProDemos instrumentarium was studied through

programme materials, observations and interviews with guides and programme

makers. This was followed by future-oriented research towards 2035. Interviews,

conversations with young people and professionals, input sessions, observations,

lectures, performances and desk research were translated into 159 context factors and

clustered into 14 clusters.

These clusters were used to construct a framework of plausible future relationships

between young people and democracy. The framework and later design directions

were further developed through conversations with researchers, education experts,

political and institutional experts, as well as design sessions and tests with young

people and ProDemos education experts. 

Results

Two dimensions became central in understanding the possible future relationships.

The first describes how graspable the world around a young person feels, ranging

from clear and structured to contested or difficult to grasp. The second describes

how a young person relates to a group: moving along with it, taking an own position,

or withdrawing from it. Together, these dimensions create nine possible behavioural

positions. These positions are not mutually exclusive: a young person may move

between them or encounter several of them across different situations.

The nine behavioural positions informed the development of nine democratic

capacities. These describe what young people may need to practise when navigating

democratic situations: choosing consciously within guided systems, daring to take a

position within a group, contributing to the system they depend on, pausing before

reacting, acting without knowing all possible consequences, understanding that

fairness feels different for everyone, building shared orientation within uncertainty,

connecting across differences, and feeling part of something larger than themselves.

The capacities are intended to develop through repeated practice and across different

situations in young people’s lives.

This led to a reframing of the design challenge. Instead of focusing on separate

democratic experiences, the project proposes recurring democratic practice across

situations young people already encounter: ‘experiencing’. A school rule, a decision

at a sports club, becoming eighteen or a disagreement about a shared place can

become an opportunity to practise a democratic capacity.

Conclusion

The resulting concept, Lieve Toekomst, is a programme for a recurring practice. It

supports educators and other makers in recognising everyday situations, selecting

a democratic capacity and turning that combination into a concrete educational

intervention. A practical booklet and first collection of examples make the programme

usable today. The shared identity, feedback loop and roadmap describe how separate

practice moments could become connected across places where young people

already are.

The project therefore proposes a broader role for ProDemos. Knowledge about

institutions, rights and procedures remains important, but young people also need

opportunities to practise how they position themselves, relate to others and act within

uncertain situations. Lieve Toekomst provides an instrumentarium for creating these

opportunities while leaving the content of the democratic future open. Young people

are prepared for that future by practising democracy in the situations they already

share with others today.
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