Austria

100 years Republic Austria -Workshop on Electoral Systems and Understanding of Democracy at BHAK Neusiedl

8 Nov , 2018  

In celebration of 100 years of Republic Austria Election-Watch.EU conducted a workshop on Electoral Systems and Understanding of Democracy at the BHAK Neusiedl on 8 November 2018.

The team of Wahlbeobachtung.org, together with students of 4th year school classes of the BHAK Eisenstadt, had developed a workshop on elections, democracy and democratic processes entitled “Electoral Systems and the Understanding of Democracy” in January 2018.

This five-hour, practice-oriented and interactive workshop has now been presented and made accessible to the students of all Burgenland BHS under the patronage of the president of the state parliament, Christian Illedits, in a cooperation of the Provincial School Board, PH Burgenland and BHAK Eisenstadt. The kick-off event, at which representatives of all schools were invited to inform themselves about the workshop and to see for themselves what is taught to the students by the team of wahlbeobachtung.org, took place on 16 May 2018 at the BHAK Eisenstadt.

The workshop “Electoral Systems and Democracy Understanding”, in which BHS teachers from all over Burgenland participated, was opened by the former director of the state parliament, Dr. Engelbert Rauchbauer and Landesschulinspektor Mag. Jürgen Neuwirth.

The special feature of this workshop is, on the one hand, that the speakers are not only able to draw from their election observation experiences, but also to work with young and first voters in Austria on the meaning and foundations of democracy and of electoral systems. On the other hand, the workshop is also special because it was created in cooperation with experts, teachers and students, in which all involved contributed to its success.