The purpose of Demo Lab (DL) is to help keep the social contract of XXI century Costa Rica in good health. It exists because Costa Rica’s democracy, as well as its social contract, are currently in transition; people are losing their hope and faith in the governing classes and institutions.

A lab is a space where an experiment is designed, deciphered and organized, and the resulting data is processed and analyzed. Demo Lab is a democracy lab, thought out to fight against the two biggest enemies of a healthy and dynamic democracy: apathy and conformity; it encourages the citizenship to take on a more active role in democracy and its processes. It is also an organization that is vigilant of our institutionality. It designs experiments and prototypes that can connect citizens, listen to and visibilize their hopes and frustrations, and try and evaluate new citizen participation mechanisms, as well as alternative governance and election models.

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El Demo Lab es un laboratorio de Democracia, creado para luchar contra la apatía y el conformismo, los cuales consideramos que son principales antagonistas de una democracia saludable y dinámica.  Nuestra intención es escuchar y visibilizar las necesidades y valores de los ciudadanos mediante experimentos.

Con los resultados de estos experimentos, el Demo Lab  pretende diseñar prototipos de canales y mecanismos de participación ciudadana y gobernanza colaborativa, los cuales permitan mantener la salud del contrato social para la Costa Rica del siglo XXI.