Spätiparlament

The “Spätiparlament” project aims to bring direct democratic participation into the everyday lives of young people and to counter skepticism toward democracy in Germany. Together with our project partner Vertrauensgesellschaft e.V., and with the support of Berliner Späti e.V., we are exploring until the end of 2028 how everyday places like spätis can become spaces for democratic engagement.

Within the Spätiparlament project, we aim to test which low-threshold participation formats can be developed—formats that enable people who are already engaged to work together with more democracy-skeptical groups, particularly young people aged 16 to 30 with and without a migration background. The goal is to lower barriers to participation, increase motivation to get involved, and strengthen trust in democracy.

From April to October 2025, Liquid Democracy conducted twelve interviews with young people from the target group, as well as with späti operators and volunteers from direct democracy initiatives. Based on these insights, two prototypes with different participation formats and thematic focuses were developed and tested between June and December 2025. In November and December, these ideas were further explored in four focus groups with young people on site in Berlin spätis. In 2026, we plan to test our approaches for the first time as part of a real participation process in several Berlin spätis.