Playfully practicing democracy

By Peter Budig

People of all ages meet up in game clubs or at private gatherings and bring out the latest board game as well as one of the well-known classics. Increasingly often, they are borrowing games from public libraries, special game libraries or game centres to try them out. So that they can keep up to date and make new game-loving acquaintances, growing numbers of people make the annual pilgrimage to Germany’s largest consumer fair: SPIEL ESSEN  – most recently 193,000 of them over four days.

Ostensibly, people meet up for fun, for excitement, to compete against each other and to experience togetherness. But very subliminally, through the back door so to speak, they learn something essential: how to stick to the rules, how to bend the rules (within reason), how to establish new rules with general agreement, how to have open discussions, how to argue without any repercussions, how to win and how to cope with losing.

It’s no coincidence then that this sounds like a seminar on how to gain a better understanding of democracy. Under the title Brettspielend demokratiefähig werden ("Getting ready for democracy through board games"), speaker Christian Beiersdorf from the Game Designers Association (Spielautorenzunft - SAZ), the game designer Daniel Bernsen along with the historian and co-founder of Boardgame Historian Lukas Boch systematically examined board games. Among other things, they came to the following conclusion: "Modern board games simulate complex democratic processes and make them plain. That’s why playing analogue games together is far more than just mere entertainment – they can also be seen as a political act." The article is published in issue number 2 of 2024 of Politik & Kultur, the newspaper of the German Cultural Council.

Nevertheless, as the authors present in detail, board games do not enjoy the requisite public support: "The social function of board games is still scarcely recognised in politics and culture – despite their growing importance."

The growing importance of board games is easy to prove: historical games such as Weimar – The Struggle for Democracy exemplify complex historical processes; when playing a round together, the individual players experience "the Nazi Party as a constant threat that can cause the game to come to a premature end".

And while we’re on the subject of "right-wing dangers to democracy", this study from the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth shouldn’t be missed: "Extremely lonely" is the upshot of a youth survey examining the causes of radical attitudes. "It’s lonely young people in particular that tend to develop anti-democratic attitudes" is one conclusion. When playing board games, however, players can practise having peaceful and friendly discussions, and their loneliness evaporates when playing together.

By the way…the growing trend towards cooperative board games, where the aim isn’t to win but to find solutions together, also brings us closer to democratic civic engagement. Take, for example, the extremely successful Exit series from Kosmos Verlag or the joint battle against global warming in e-Mission.

The authors emphatically conclude, therefore, that there should be greater awareness of the virtues of analogue board games in the spheres of culture and politics. Opening lending libraries on Sundays and ensuring that schools are equipped with suitable board games are just two examples of very simple ways to promote democracy through board games.

Source:
Beiersdorf, Christien; Bernsen, Daniel; Boch, Lukas: „Brettspielend demokratiefähig werden (Becoming capable of democracy through board games)“, in: Politik & Kultur (Politics & Culture) 22. Jg./2, 29.01.2024, S. 04. https://www.kulturrat.de/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/puk02-24.pdf

About the author

Peter Budig studied Protestant theology, history and political science. He worked as a freelance journalist, headed up the editorial department of a large advertising paper in Nuremberg for ten years and was the editor of Nuremberg’s Abendzeitung newspaper. He has been freelancing again since 2014 as a journalist, book author and copywriter. Storytelling is absolutely his favourite form.