What we do

Key activities 

Thankfully democracy is not under immediate threat in New Zealand.  Therefore our activities are likely to be modest and occasional.

We will focus on three key activities:

• Raising awareness of the  “autocratic playbook” - how aspiring autocrats and their supporters undermine democracy.

• Identifying and drawing attention to activities that have resonate with the autocratic playbook and potentially chip away at the foundations of our democracy.

• Trialling techniques for reducing societal polarisation in New Zealand.

Activities would be scaled up in response to an increased threat.

Reducing polarisation

One of our key activities is to trial techniques to reduce polarisation. This might seem like an unusual focus, so here’s an expanation.

Aspiring autocrats often exploit and amplify societal polarisation. By doing so, they can then present themselves as the sole protectors against the "other" side.

As we wrote in our foundational July 2024 note (here): 

"However we identify ourselves (right or left; Republican or Democrat; woke or anti-woke), the truth of the matter is that we agree on much more than we disagree on. It would be wonderful if there could be 'reconciliation meetings' where groups of Americans could talk quietly, listen carefully and focus on how much they have in common."

Our approach involves experimenting with small group meetings designed to foster this kind of dialogue. The goal is to develop techniques that can be scaled up and deployed more broadly to counter dangerous levels of polarisation should they arise in the future.