Democracy technologies in Europe - Online Participation, Deliberation and Voting

Democracy technologies in Europe - Online Participation, Deliberation and Voting
Author: David Leal García
Publisher: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2023-05-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3200090588

When technology meets political participation. More and more political professionals in Europe are trying to find ways to enhance the representativeness and effectiveness of democracy, so forms of participatory and deliberative democracy are on the rise. New tools have emerged to facilitate engagement, digitizing previously analogue processes and widening accessibility and scale. Initially, awareness of such technologies and methods was limited to a group of ‘participation enthusiasts’, but in recent years such applications have become common in many countries and cities. An increasing number of people working in politics are looking for, and implementing such solutions. As a result, a market for democracy technologies is taking shape in Europe. Based on a series of in-depth interviews with 53 politicians, experts and representatives of companies across Europe, this report presents conclusions on the state of democracy technologies in Europe.

Participatory Democratic Innovations in Europe

Participatory Democratic Innovations in Europe
Author: Brigitte Geißel
Publisher: Verlag Barbara Budrich
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2013-11-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3847403974

Representative democracy is often seen as a stable institutional system insusceptible to change. However, the preferences of the broad public are changing and representative, group based democracy has lost importance. This development made it necessary to change established ways of decision making and to introduce participatory democratic innovations. Many national and sub-national governments followed this route and implemented various kinds of participatory innovations, i.e. the inclusion of citizens into processes of political will-formation and decisionmaking. The authors analyse and evaluate the various effects of these innovations in Europe, providing a bigger picture of the benefits and disadvantages different democratic innovations can result in.

Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions Catching the Deliberative Wave

Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions Catching the Deliberative Wave
Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2020-06-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9264725903

Public authorities from all levels of government increasingly turn to Citizens' Assemblies, Juries, Panels and other representative deliberative processes to tackle complex policy problems ranging from climate change to infrastructure investment decisions. They convene groups of people representing a wide cross-section of society for at least one full day – and often much longer – to learn, deliberate, and develop collective recommendations that consider the complexities and compromises required for solving multifaceted public issues.

Retooling Politics

Retooling Politics
Author: Andreas Jungherr
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2020-06-11
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1108419402

Provides academics, journalists, and general readers with bird's-eye view of data-driven practices and their impact in politics and media.

Introducing Electronic Voting

Introducing Electronic Voting
Author: Peter Wolf
Publisher: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)
Total Pages: 39
Release: 2011-12-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9186565427

Electronic voting is often seen as a tool for making the electoral process more efficient and for increasing trust in its management. Properly implemented, e-voting solutions can increase the security of the ballot, speed up the processing of results and make voting easier. However, the challenges are considerable. If not carefully planned and designed, e-voting can undermine the confidence in the whole electoral process. Technology upgrades in elections are always challenging projects that require careful deliberation and planning. Introducing e-voting is probably the most difficult upgrade as this technology touches the core of the entire electoral process—the casting and counting of the votes. E-voting greatly reduces direct human control and influence in this process. This provides an opportunity for solving some old electoral problems, but also introduces a whole range of new concerns. Consequently, e-voting usually triggers more criticism and opposition and is more disputed than any other information technology application in elections. This Policy Paper outlines contextual factors that can influence the success of e-voting solutions and highlights the importance of considering these factors before choosing to introduce new voting technologies.

Computational Propaganda

Computational Propaganda
Author: Samuel C. Woolley
Publisher:
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2019
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 019093140X

Social media platforms do not just circulate political ideas, they support manipulative disinformation campaigns. While some of these disinformation campaigns are carried out directly by individuals, most are waged by software, commonly known as bots, programmed to perform simple, repetitive, robotic tasks. Some social media bots collect and distribute legitimate information, while others communicate with and harass people, manipulate trending algorithms, and inundate systems with spam. Campaigns made up of bots, fake accounts, and trolls can be coordinated by one person, or a small group of people, to give the illusion of large-scale consensus. Some political regimes use political bots to silence opponents and to push official state messaging, to sway the vote during elections, and to defame critics, human rights defenders, civil society groups, and journalists. This book argues that such automation and platform manipulation, amounts to a new political communications mechanism that Samuel Woolley and Philip N. Noward call "computational propaganda." This differs from older styles of propaganda in that it uses algorithms, automation, and human curation to purposefully distribute misleading information over social media networks while it actively learns from and mimicks real people so as to manipulate public opinion across a diverse range of platforms and device networks. This book includes cases of computational propaganda from nine countries (both democratic and authoritarian) and four continents (North and South America, Europe, and Asia), covering propaganda efforts over a wide array of social media platforms and usage in different types of political processes (elections, referenda, and during political crises).

Deliberative Mini-Publics

Deliberative Mini-Publics
Author: Maija Setälä
Publisher: ECPR Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2014-07-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1907301321

The first comprehensive account of the booming phenomenon of deliberative mini-publics, this book offers a systematic review of their variety, discusses their weaknesses, and recommends ways to make them a viable component of democracy. The book takes stock of the diverse practices of deliberative mini-publics and, more concretely, looks at preconditions, processes, and outcomes. It provides a critical assessment of the experience with mini-publics; in particular their lack of policy impact. Bringing together leading scholars in the field, notably James S Fishkin and Mark E Warren, Deliberative Mini-Publics will speak to anyone with an interest in democracy and democratic innovations.

Democracy and Technology

Democracy and Technology
Author: Richard Sclove
Publisher: Guilford Press
Total Pages: 356
Release: 1995-07-28
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9780898628616

Intended for anyone interested in democracy and public policy, social justice and empowerment, political economy and business or the social consequences of technology and architecture.

Democratic Innovations

Democratic Innovations
Author: Graham Smith
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2009-07-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0521514770

This book examines democratic innovations from around the world, drawing lessons for the future development of both democratic theory and practice.

Youth Participation in Democratic Life

Youth Participation in Democratic Life
Author: Bart Cammaerts
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2016-02-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137540214

This book is concerned with the contexts, nature and quality of the participation of young people in European democratic life. The authors understand democracy broadly as both institutional politics and civic cultures, and a wide range of methods are used to analyse and assess youth participation and attitudes.