FUTURE COUNCILS
Futures councils complement the usual political way of working in political institutions (government, parliament and administration, judiciary) by adding the long-term dimension. They render possible a well founded discussion on long term issues and on how to shape them.
They discuss viable long term pathways of development. They introduce their propositions early into decision-preparing and decision-making processes.
The creation of future councils is a step forward in our current democracy. The huge technical, economic and organizational capacities that have been created in recent decades in our society have often produced irreversible long-term effects. Not only for ourselves but also for future generations. In order to be able to responsibly manage and transform these forces, new political institutions exactly for this goal are required: future councils. Without them, this great freedom of design cannot be tackled. The development of our society would then continue to be misunderstood as a natural event and not as a development conceived and created by ourselves.
Many aspects in our society are strongly focused on the short term. Including elections every 4 years, news and media as well as the growing number of issues.
Future councils are a tool to counterbalance this way of doing things by focusing on the long term dimension.
The Future Council Fundation is engaged in the creation of future councils in municipalities, cantons, at the federal level and also at the international level (in other countries, in governmental organizations and in UN).
According to size and political organization in place, traditions and culture, shape and structure of a future council may change. This is why the Future Council Foundation works with different concepts and concretises them according to the context and the actors involved.