Building Blocks of Democracy

The building blocks of democracy offer a unique educational experience in the landscape of civic education in Switzerland by conveying fundamental democratic values. Participants are encouraged and empowered to identify and discuss value controversies while also having the opportunity to practice political action and participation. This makes democracy tangible, permitting participants to discover and further develop their own preferences and interests. The Democracy Blocks are a transferable teaching concept covering different topics, currently consisting of three modules (Island Utopia, Zeitreise, Wertebarometer) with didactic implementation.

The building blocks of democracy are are conducted with a thematic focus. Currently available topics include:

• participation rights

• majority decisions and direct democracy

• federalism

• gender equality

From starting with the first workshops in schools to developing material on the topic of federalism in four languages, with the building blocks of democracy we have experiences a lot, achieved many things and have also encountered obstacles. The key milestones were:

• 2023-24 Collaboration with the ch Foundation to expand the modules Utopia Island and Zeitreise on the topic of federalism.

• 2022 Support from the Basler Spendenparlament for workshops in Basel

• 2021 Development of a digital version of the Zeitreise module (in collaboration with Kantonsschule Obwalden and éducation21)

• 2021 expansion of the module WerteBarometer to the topic of gender equality.

• 2020 Translation of the Utopia Island module into Italian and preparation for launch in Ticino - aborted due to the outbreak of the pandemic.

• 2020 Beginning of the first training of trainers for building blocks of democracy.

• 2019 building blocks of democracy are offered for groups and school classes at the PolitForum Bern.

• 2017: First building blocks of democracy school workshops in German-speaking Switzerland.

This part of the page will not be translated since the resources presented are available in German only.

• Building Blocks of democracy on Federalism
  • Information in Italian
  • Information in French
  • Information in Rumantsch Grischun
• Demokratiebausteine. Konzept. Rebecca Welge und Sabine Jenni, März 2020. [Herunterladen als PDF]
• 'Neues Lernmodul Geschlechtergerechtigkeit', Beitrag vom 11. November 2021 von Sarah Preiswerk, Initiatorin des Wertebarometer-Moduls zum Thema Geschlechtegerechtigkeit: [Blog ch2021.ch]
• 'Werte: die Bausteine einer Demokratie', Kurzbericht zu den Demokratiebausteinen in der ventuno-Ausgabe vom September 2021 (S. 7): [Demokratie. ventuno - BNE für die Schulpraxis. 03-2021]
• Veranstaltungsbericht: Bericht von Emma Alber über ihre Erfahrungen als Teilnehmerin am Demokratiebaustein-Workshop vom 23.03.2021, zum herunterladen als PDF: [Bericht_EinblickDemBau_EAlber_download]
• Demokratiebaustein-Workshop an der NMS Bern im Jahr 2018 als Praxisbeispiel auf der Webseite der Stiftung éducation21: [Link zum Praxisbeispiel mit Video].
• Bericht über die Demokratiebaustein-Workshops an der Kantonsschule Solothurn im Januar 2019 (ab S. 8): [DBK aktuell 2/2019]
  

Financial support for the project has been provided by various organizations: éducation21 (various school workshops 2017-2019), the Walter and Ambrosina Oertli Foundation (translations), the Paul Schiller Foundation (training program for new trainers), the Stiftung für Staatsbürgerliche Bildung und Schulung (development of the Gender Equality module), the ch Foundation, the Cantons of Aargau (Swisslos Fund), Graubünden (National Lottery) and Vaud and the Swiss Charitable Society SGG (Federalism).

The building blocks of democracy are listed in the BNE database of extracurricular offers hosted by the éducation21 Foundation, on the website of the PolitBaukasten Basel, and in the project list of the Campus for Democracy.

Democracy Block workshops have been conducted since 2017 at various schools and educational venues (incomplete list):

Kantonsschule Solothurn, Berufsfachschule Langenthal, Schule für Gestaltung Bern, Gymnasium Leonhard Basel, Fachmittelschule Basel, Kantonsschule Obwalden, Gymnasium Interlaken, Baugewerbliche Berufsschule Zürich, Gymnasium NMS Bern, Kantonsschule Enge Zürich, Kantonsschule Wettingen, Wirtschaftsgymnasium Basel, Sekundarschule Feuerthalen, Haus der Kantone Bern, Polit-Forum Bern, Doktoratsprogramm Demokratiestudien Universtität Zürich.

The building blocks of democracy were originally developed as an educational concept with different didactic modules for the topics of participation rights and majority decisions and direct democracy by the founders of Demokrative, Rebecca Welge and Sabine Jenni.

The module on gender equality was developed by Sarah Preiswerk, Marion Knöpfel, and Claudia Röder, with support from Rebecca Welge.

The modules on federalism were developed by Sabine Jenni, Johanna Flach, and Etienne Furrer, with support from Michael Strebel (Demokrative), Alexander Arens (ch Foundation) and Sean Müller (University of Lausanne).

Democracy Block workshops are led by the Multiplication Team of Demokrative.