Challenging policy orthodoxy currently hegemonic in the West
Independent thinking for a more principled politics
The Institut Juclandia is a policy institute committed to advancing thoughtful, principled approaches to governance, law, and public life. Founded on the belief that democratic societies require more than efficiency and PR branding, the Institute seeks to challenge current policy orthodoxy in the globalised world and question short-term thinking, and dogmas pertaining to the functioning of our economies, the distribution of our resources of all kinds, and the nature of free markets.
We bring together policy thinkers who share a commitment to public reasoning unencumbered by market logic, technocratic reductionism, or institutional self-interest. Our work cuts across disciplinary boundaries, but is unified by a refusal to treat politics as mere management, or the citizen as a consumer. While we profoundly believe in the role of free markets in a democratic economy, we challenge the understanding of free markets – believing that there is no free market without information transparency and symmetry, without effective competition, and without a stakeholder paradigm that goes beyond superficiality and marketing efforts.
Our Origins
The Institute has its roots in the micronation of Juclandia, a learn-and-play project that some of us began during our school years. What started as a creative space for imagining governance gradually matured into a structured political simulation – and then, unexpectedly, into a serious laboratory of ideas. Juclandia allowed us to interrogate political assumptions in a low-stakes environment, test models of participatory governance, and, most importantly, refine our values. Over time, these values – cooperative, deliberative, anti-managerial, and grounded in constitutionalism and the rule of law – have formed the basis of a real-world policy platform. The Institut Juclandia is the institutional continuation of that long-form civic and popular education.
Our Core Areas of Work
- Constitutional and legal theory, with a focus on judicial discretion, procedural justice, and institutional legitimacy
- Political economy, including critiques of managerialism, outsourcing, and the erosion of democratic ownership
- Democratic practice, particularly in small-scale and experimental governance models
- Ethics in public policy, beyond compliance and into the realm of civic responsibility and moral imagination
- Historical memory and post-national frameworks
We are not aligned with any government, political party, or corporate interest. We are animated instead by a sense of civic duty, and by the conviction that efficient and effective rule of law, a well-structured socially cohesive economic system and a definancialisation of goods and services will not just build a better society, but will prevent the Western world from falling into path dependency towards economic, social and political catastrophe.
Whether through popular education, publications, workshops, legal commentary, or institutional critique, the Institut Juclandia works to shape a politics that is more just, more thoughtful, and more human.
Our Intellectual Tradition
We consider ourselves profoundly Western, and we embrace the responsibilities that come with that inheritance. Our values are deeply rooted in the civilisational legacy of the West – in particular, the moral tradition of Christianity, the political tradition of liberalism, and the critical tradition of resistance to injustice. We draw inspiration from thinkers associated with an open, active and alternative liberalism such as John Stuart Mill, John Rawls, Isaiah Berlin, and Hannah Arendt, who sought to balance individual liberty with collective dignity and diluted power. At the same time, we are indebted to the revolutionary spirit of Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Antonio Gramsci, and Simone Weil, whose writings have challenged us to see beyond complacency and to confront the structural roots of suffering. These traditions, while sometimes in tension, guide our efforts to propose a politics of freedom, solidarity, and deep accountability.