As the 2009 elections in Germany are drawing to a close, and the established five parties continue to change and adopt their statements about probable coalitions on a daily basis, many people, especially from abroad, are wondering what could be the outcome of all of this in the weeks and months after the 27th of September – what kind of political changes will occur, in which directions Germany will go, and so on. From a German perspective, the answer is surprisingly simple: regardless of who will be voted into power the weekend after next, nothing much will change.

JPoX is an enthusiast’s project, founded by a group of zealous researchers and consultants of SEgroup, an independent think-tank based in Berlin. After its much-acclaimed launch in 2008 the JPoX project took a short timeout that lasted a little longer than anticipated. But we are not gone for good, on the contrary: In the last couple of weeks, the JPoX team conducted a number of new and exciting interviews...

The contributions we received for the pilot issue of JPoX are very diverse in approach and perspective. In this editorial reflection we will try so sketch the broad picture by bringing the thoughts and ideas of the authors together. Firstly we address the points of reference as a guiding distinction, secondly we stress that participation is the common denominator, thirdly we tackle the diverging approaches for change. Last but not least we will elaborate the ex post status of Political Excellence concluding with a short outlook.