The Foundation's flagship focus area. Parliaments, elections, local government and the civil service — the institutions through which citizen will becomes public decision. We research how well these institutions work, for whom, and what would make them work better.
Each focus area is structured around four to six durable sub-themes — research questions that recur and need consistent, longitudinal evidence rather than one-off studies.
Electoral integrity, ECP performance, polling-station observation, returning-officer compliance and election-results auditability. Continuous monitoring across federal, provincial and local cycles.
Bill activity, committee functioning, oversight of the executive, attendance and the substantive quality of legislation. Both National Assembly, Senate and four provincial assemblies.
The structure, financing, capacity and electoral integrity of local government across all four provinces — including the long-running gap between constitutional devolution and effective practice.
Bureaucratic accountability, public-service delivery, transfers and postings, and the relationship between political executives and career civil servants.
Each focus area is supported by one or more DemTech tools — for fieldwork, citizen engagement, monitoring or open-data publication.
Open the DemTech Commons hub to see which tools support People & Democratic Governance work, or apply for partner access if you're a civic-society organisation.
Commission a study, propose a partnership, contribute data, or support the focus area through a programmatic grant.