Research

Max Planck Center for Democracy, Security, and Human Rights

Democracy

Current research projects on democracy concern the legal, political, and material conditions for good governance. Our group explores what liberal democracy means in the 21st century and how to sustain it. While some of the research questions are more abstract and address broader theoretical issues, others engage with more concrete challenges such as emergency legislation, infrastructure, and accountability dynamics.

• Roni Elon
  What Is Liberal Sovereignty in the 21st Century? The Case of Israel Between the River and the Sea
• Daniel Shtauber
  The Role of the Attorney General in Legislative Processes during Emergency
• Randall Stephenson
  Democracy and State Secrets: Calibrating Public Accountability in Modern Intelligence Gathering
• Marc Bovermann 
  Protecting Democracy and the Public Sphere: The Mitigation of Systemic Risks in Platform Regulation
• Daniel Buchmann 
  Public Law Implications of the Digital Attention Economy

Security

The study of security encompasses both the responsibilities of government and its limitations. Providing security is a basic justification for state authority and is among the highest of state responsibilities. As security is a raison d'être, it is also important to ensure that the government itself cannot threaten it. As reflected in the breadth of our research projects, it is the task of state security in a liberal democracy to both protect the public from non-state threats and from the state itself.

• Johanna Fink
  Contemporary Challenges of Transnational Security Cooperation in a Franco-German Perspective
• Shadi Akariya
  Attitudes toward Law Enforcement among the Arab Minority in Israel and the Role of the Community in Addressing Severe Violence
• Jakob Mutter 
  Germany’s ‘Separation Principle’: Police and Secret Service Reconnaissance Tasks in a Changing Security Landscape
• Amir Cahane
  Digital Rights and Surveillance

Human Rights

Human rights are pivotal to the two other branches of the Center. Respecting individual rights is a core commitment of a liberal democracy, and security is a necessary condition for enjoying and exercising these rights. Our research in this field takes various approaches, some projects focusing on specific challenges, such as minorities living in conflict zones, while others concern more general questions of human rights law and jurisprudence.

• Safaa Debs
  Induction Years for Palestinian Teachers in East Jerusalem: Challenges and Opportunities in a Conflictual Context
• Yehezkel Lein
  ‘Fifth-Column’ Minorities and Human Rights: A Global Comparison and Lessons for Israel-Palestine
• Johanna Bücker
  Derogation Powers and Continuing States of Emergency under the ECHR
• Shay Yoos
  Political and Social Impacts of the October 7th Massacre on Gaza Envelope Communities
• André Bartsch
  The Role of Fundamental Rights When Restricting State Funding for Public Security Reasons
• Moran Svorai
  Freedom of Political Expression in the Workplace