This book offers a new approach for the future of democracy by advocating giving citizens the power to deliberate and to decide how to govern themselves.

Brigitte Geissel is Professor of Political Science and Political Sociology and Head of the Research Unit 'Democratic Innovations' at Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany.

Introduction: A Visionary Thriving Democracy Part 1: Thriving Democracies: Principles of self-governing 1. Citizens decide on how they govern themselves 2. Citizens monitor continuous adaption 3. Citizens' will-formation is tightly connected to decision-making Part 2: Why existing democracies fail to realize self-governing 4. Self-governing: citizens' preferences and competencies 5. No established practice suffices to realizing self-governing 6. No existing experiment suffices to realizing self-governing Part 3: Thriving Democracies: Visionary setups for realizing self-governing 7. Practices for will-formation and decision-making 8. Procedures connecting will-formation and decision-making 9. Novel public agencies and legal norms. Conclusion: Thriving Democracies - our future