The Institute for 21st Century Agoras is a volunteer-driven organization dedicated to vigorous democracy on the model of that practiced in the agoras of ancient Greece. It employs Co-Laboratories of Democracy that enable civil dialogue in complex situations.

Mission

Portico of the Hephaesteum looking out over the Agora of Athens. This Doric Temple built 449-444 BC dedicated to Hephaestus. God of craftsmen and potters, was commissioned by Pericles.

Our mission is to employ Co-Laboratories of Democracy in complex situations with diverse groups of willing stakeholders to jump start new or stalling democratic processes. In other words, with structured and open dialogue, we facilitate participatory democracy, helping people to identify underlying realities of a systemic mess and to generate consensual action plans. In this way, we aim to spread agoras like crabgrass throughout the world.

Evaluation

The immediate criteria for evaluating our work are the abilities of co-laboratories to draw together the relevant stakeholders of a situation, elicit a comprehensive list of responses to a well-devised triggering question, generate consensus on the deep parameters of the situation, and produce effective action plans. Mid-term results are measured in the extent that participants and their constituencies follow through on the action scenarios generated in the co-laboratories. Long-term results are measured in the vitality of the participating groups and their effectiveness in influencing the problematic situation.