Anthony Zacharzewski on Democratic Infrastructure, Participation, and Power

Anthony Zacharzewski on Democratic Infrastructure, Participation, and Power

Anthony Zacharzewski is the founder of Democratic Society, an organization working across Europe to build democratic infrastructure and improve participation in government. In this conversation, he discusses how participation can become part of institutional design, why democracy must engage seriously with power, and how digitalization and the agentic state could reshape the relationship between citizens, political parties, and public services. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. * PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG [https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG]

Alice Casiraghi on designing regenerative systems, public services, and democratic participation

Alice Casiraghi is a systemic designer working on sustainability, circular economy, regenerative systems, and public services. She is a European Climate Pact Ambassador, teaches at Politecnico di Milano and created Climate Cards to educate on environmental impacts. Through her systemic approach, she gives new perspectives on participation of citizens and beyond. In the interview we talked about: If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. * PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG [https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG]

Paolo Spada on participatory budgeting, citizen assemblies, and scaling democratic innovation

Paolo Spada is a political scientist at the University of Southampton working on participatory budgeting, citizen assemblies, and democratic innovation. In this episode, we talk about feedback loops, scaling participation, political parties, online deliberation, and why democratic innovation needs stronger critique as it becomes more established. A central idea in the conversation is that scaling democratic participation is not mainly a technical problem. It is a political problem, and tools like AI only help when ownership, transparency, and accountability remain under democratic control. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. * PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG [https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG]

Antoine Vergne from Missions Publiques on scaling deliberative decision-making and random selection

Antoine Vergne is the co-director of Missions Publiques and the co-author of the ScaleDem Analytical Framework. His passion for innovating democratic processes is reflected in his academic background in political science and his nearly 15 years at Missions Publiques. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. * PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG [https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG]

Paul Zeitz about permanent citizens' assemblies in the US and using technology to scale it

Paul Zeitz is an author and advocate for global justice and human rights, among other things. With over 35 years of experience and several publications he is addressing systemic challenges. Especially in his book “Hit Refresh on the U.S. Constitution”, he calls for more deliberation in our democracies. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. * PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG [https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG]