School-Labs as Democratic Micro-Publics: Education for Democracy Between Theory and Policy

Contemporary democracies face increasing challenges related to political polarization, declining trust, and weakening democratic competences among younger generations. Democratic theory has long emphasized the importance of deliberation, participation, and civic judgement for the functioning and resilience of democratic systems. Yet public education systems often struggle to translate these normative expectations into practice. Education for Democracy (EfD) remains constrained by rigid curricula, limited time resources, and institutional path dependencies that marginalize experiential and participatory approaches. This paper conceptualizes school labs as democratic micro-publics within the educational system. Drawing on deliberative and participatory democratic theory, school labs are understood as temporary institutional spaces in which students can practice core democratic competences under conditions of equality, collective decision-making, and reason-giving. As short-term, project-based formats, school labs offer a pragmatic response to structural constraints in schools while preserving key normative principles of democratic learning. The theoretical argument is illustrated through an empirically tested school lab for students aged 14–17 entitled “Founding a New Society”. Combining simulation games and theatre pedagogy, participants collectively design a fictional society, define shared values, select decision-making procedures, and allocate scarce resources. Their societies are subsequently confronted with external shocks such as pandemics, geopolitical threats, or technological transformations. Through deliberation, conflict negotiation, and forum theatre techniques, participants experience democracy as a contested and dynamic process. A structured reflection phase links these experiences to democratic competences central to democratic resilience, including deliberation, judgement, solidarity-based participation, and collective problem-solving. From a policy perspective, the paper draws on findings from the DEMOCRAT project to identify institutional conditions that shape the implementation of school labs. While rigid schedules, time scarcity among educators, and dependency on school leadership act as significant barriers, enabling factors include motivated actors, voluntary participation, existing networks, peer-to-peer learning, and cooperation with local partners beyond the school. These findings underline that democratic education is not only a pedagogical but also an institutional and governance challenge. The paper contributes to debates on democratic resilience and citizenship education by linking democratic theory with actionable policy insights. It argues that school labs represent a scalable and adaptable policy instrument for strengthening democratic competences among young people and embedding democratic practices within existing educational structures.