Draft:Cambridge Centre for the Future of Democracy

The Centre for the Future of Democracy was a research institute in the Department of Politics & International Studies at the University of Cambridge that was founded by David Runciman in January 2020. It was closed down in 2022.

At its launch the Centre released its first report, produced in collaboration with the Human Understanding Measured Across National (HUMAN) Surveys project that is led by Dr. Andrew Klassen.

Policy Engagement

The centre contributed to parliamentary hearings at the British House of Lords, United Nations or the World Economic Forum among others. Member of the Centre also participated at the annual Singapore perspectives conference by the National University of Singapore in 2021 and the World Forum for Democracay organised by the Council of Europe

Public Reports

The Centre's first report gained widespread media attention, including via articles in the BBC,, The Atlantic, , and Politico.

It was then followed by a second report ten months later on the topic of young people and democracy. On its release, it briefly reached the number one most popular thread worldwide on Reddit, as well as achieving coverage in the Guardian, the Financial Times,, the Times, the Telegraph, Reuters, CNN, the BBC, or the Hindustan Times.

In 2021 the Centre was able to expand with financial support from the Omidyar Network, a partnership agreement with the UK Cabinet Office, and collaboration with British polling firm YouGov, hiring numerous postdoctoral associates and research assistants.

A third report was then released in January 2022 in partnership with YouGov, and focused on how the global COVID-19 pandemic had affected support for democracy, political trust, and support for populist parties and politicians. Its findings were widely discussed in international media, including stories in the Financial Times,, Bloomberg, , the China Daily , CNBC, , Der Spiegel, The Times, The Guardian, and the Washington Post.

In the wake of the war in Ukraine, the Centre's fourth report examined trends in global attitudes towards the United States, Russia and China, by harmonising data from more than 175 countries across the world. The findings of this research were covered by international media including the New York Times, Newsweek and Bloomberg.