Democracy and human rights are closely related: just as human rights include not only protective rights but also political participation rights, modern democracy is based not only on participation rights but also on protective rights, which the electorate does not have at its free disposal. It is the combination of equal protective and participation rights that characterises modern democracies at their core. And it is the principle of equal rights, if not equality, that human rights and democracy have in common.

The history of democracy and the history of human rights are linked by the fact that both examine how, to what extent, why, in what steps and with what consequences people in political communities became equal: received equal protection or equal participation – or were denied these.

In the Euro-Atlantic area, equal protection and equal participation have become so intertwined that, in this tradition, there are no full human rights without democracy and no democracy without full human rights. This understanding, of course, has its own history, which needs to be researched and questioned in order to make us more aware of its historicity – that is, its temporal and cultural conditionality and corresponding changeability. And it must be examined in relation to other spaces.

The key research area "Democracy and Human Rights" at the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna ties in with this and sets new accents:

• It combines research on the history of democracy and on the history of human rights, which has been conducted separately for the most part.
  
  
• It draws on the resources of the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna to establish cross-regional, cross-epochal and cross-disciplinary contexts.
  
  
• It connects colleagues at the faculty who are researching the history of human rights and democracy in order to promote the exchange of ideas and collaboration.
  
  
• It supports the preparation of applications for third-party research funding .
  
  
• It increases the visibility of their research.
  
  
• It provides a framework for exchange and collaboration with researchers from other faculties, other universities and other institutions in Switzerland and abroad.