In 2017, the CTS launched a new network-building project entitled Democratic Agendas Network (DAN) as a framework for integrating projects and dialogues related to the career of democracy and its futures. Through the DAN, the CTS is currently focused on developing a number of networks that would link students and faculty at Northwestern University with their peers at other academic institutions, both in the US and abroad, in long-term collaborative projects. These new networks will enhance and complement the conferences, research, teaching, publication, and public outreach initiatives that the CTS has been fostering since its inception. The CTS plays a crucial coordinating role in this project, working in collaboration with international scholars and institutional partners. The DAN is coordinated by the CTS in close collaboration with two steering partners:

• The Center for Global Culture and Communication (CGCC), a Northwestern University-based center for research and collaboration (represented by its director, Dilip Gaonkar); and
• Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM), or, the Institute for Human Sciences, an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences based in Vienna, Austria.

Along with the CTS, these two partners will provide substantial funding for sustaining DAN.

In addition to the steering partners, the DAN initiative involves collaborations with affiliate partners from around the world:

• Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi (represented by its senior scholar, Rajeev Bhargava);
• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy (AHCD), Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva (represented by its director, Shalini Randeria);
• Center for Mexican Studies (CMS), Columbia University, New York (represented by its director, Claudio Lomnitz);
• Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económica (CIDE), Mexico City (represented by its director, Sergio López Ayllon);
• Center for Anthropological, Political and Social Theory (CAPS), University of Copenhagen (represented by its codirector, Lars Tønder);
• The South Asia Center, London School of Economics (LSE), London (represented by its director, Mukulika Banerjee); and
• Political Theory Research Group, Fabra Pompeu University, Barcelona (represented by Camil Ungureanu).