Muwatin aims are:
• To initiate a full and wide ranging critical debate on democratic issues and options and to provide a public forum for debate on the need for the democratic transformation of Palestinian political and civil life.
• To identify actual or potential agents in the transition to democracy in Palestine including political parties and mass-based movements, and to engage them in debate and provide them with intellectual support and critical resources, in the belief that such engagement could have real impact upon the transition to democratic life.
• To help build a strong research community in Palestine that will produce original research including policy oriented research, thus building a knowledge base on the processes that affect democratic transformation in Palestine, and that can have an impact on policy formulation.
• To actively engage in the practical dissemination of democratic ideas and culture through its publications, targeting specific groups such as teachers and students at both the university and school levels.
• To help rebuild the intellectual links between Palestinian and Arab intellectuals, links that have been adversely affected by long years of isolation imposed by the Israeli occupation.

Muwatin, The Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy, was founded in January 1992 to promote the study and development of democracy in Palestine and in the region.

It is governed by an independent Board of Trustees