International Symposium on "Democracy in the 21st Century: Freedom and Innovation in the Technological Age" (2025)

The all-day program brought together Czech and international experts in the fields of law, political science, technology, artificial intelligence research, and civil society in Prague. The common theme was the question of how new technologies, growing polarization, and shifts in public discourse are affecting freedom, democratic institutions, and the way society makes political decisions. Speakers included, for example, American lawyer and professor Jonathan Turley, freedom of speech expert Natalie Alkiviadou, law professor Eric Heinze, political scientist Mahendra Prasad, Palantir representative Nicholas W. Zamiska, technology and geopolitics researcher Moritz von Knebel, and Karel Janeček, founder of the H21 Institute.

The program addressed a range of current topics: from freedom of speech and the limits of hate speech regulation, to the role of technology and artificial intelligence in society, to ways of seeking broader social consensus in a polarized era.

The symposium also included a debate on electoral systems and the D21 method as a tool that can contribute to more moderate and consensus-based decision-making. If you were unable to attend the symposium or would like to revisit some of the presentations, we have the complete recordings available for you below:

Presentations:

Eric Heinze: What should “progressive” mean in the 21st century?

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Mahendra Prasad: Choice Under Existential Risk and Goal Uncertainty

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Karel Janeček: From Polarization to Moderation: Voting by Consensus with D21

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Nicholas W. Zamiska: The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West

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Natalie Alkiviadou: Hate speech/free speech and the European Court of Human Rights

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Jonathan Turley: The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage?

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We would like to thank all the speakers, partners, and participants who created an open space for a substantive discussion about the challenges facing democracy in the technological age.
Institute H21 will continue to explore these topics through research, public debates, publications, and other projects focused on freedom, democracy, and innovation.

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