The study Federal Republic of Germany 3.0 contributes to stimulate the representative democ- racy in Germany by designing an innovative concept for participation on a national level. The concept emerged from a generative design process with experts from the background of design- ing and facilitating public participation processes as well as from theoretical political sciences and constitutional law.
The result of this study, a concept for effective and inclusive national public participation, is based on (1) outstanding design questions, which emerge from actual socio-political challenges as well as difficulties and potential effects on national public participation projects combined with (2) design patterns based on an analysis on tested participation procedures and theoretical concepts of local, regional and national public participation.
The result is a conceptual design for a "Bundesbeteiligungswerkstatt" (Federal Participatory Workshop). It is a future institutionalised national body for conducting participatory procedures as part of the overall democratic system of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Federal Partici- patory Workshop is an answer to the described requirements, design questions, and it integrates the design patterns derived from the examined case examples. The concept includes potential ways of embedding the model into the formal political structures to strengthen and enhance the democratic system by introducing more participation.
