DemocracySpot

New article published in the inaugural issue of the Journal of Sortition. In The Limits of Representativeness in Citizens’ Assemblies: A Critical Analysis of Democratic Minipublics Paolo Spada and I explores key questions about representation in citizens’ assemblies, building on ideas from a blog post we publised two years ago. Refined through discussions with scholars and practitioners –…

In a discussion with a government official last week, she made a point that stuck with me: “Every time we discuss AI readiness,” she said, “someone tells us to wait, or to get something else done before trying it. But waiting is a decision that may cost us in the future.” She’s right. The technology sector has mastered the art of sophisticated hand-wringing. In AI discussions, over and over…

Really nice new study published in the American Political Science Review, by Alan N. Yan and Rachel Bernhard: Who gets to “speak up” in politics? Whose voices are silenced? We conducted two field experiments to understand how harassment shapes the everyday experiences of politics for men and women in the United States today. We randomized the names campaign volunteers used to text supporters…

A few months ago, Paolo Spada and I published a blog post about sortition and the representativeness of citizens’ assemblies. We were pleasantly surprised by the response to our post and the ensuing discussions. In this new exchange at the Deliberative Democracy Digest, Kyle Redman, Paolo Spada, and I try to delve deeper, exploring further the challenges of achieving representativeness in…

A few years ago, Tom Steinberg and I discussed the potential risks posed by AI bots in influencing citizen engagement processes and manipulating public consultations. With the rapid advancement of AI technology, these risks have only intensified. This escalating concern has even elicited an official response from the White House. A recent executive order has tasked the Office of Information and…

Diversity is a key ingredient in the recipe for collective intelligence because it brings together a range of perspectives, tools, and abilities; allowing for a more comprehensive approach to problem-solving and decision-making. Gender diversity on corporate boards improves firms’ performance, ethnic diversity produces more impactful scientific research, diverse groups are better at solving…

The haves and the have-nots: who benefits from civic tech?

Photo by Lewis Nguyen on Unsplash “Civic tech” broadly refers to the use of digital technologies to support a range of citizen engagement processes. From allowing individuals to report problems to local government to enabling the crowdsourcing of national legislation, civic tech aims to promote better policies and services  – while contributing to more inclusive democratic institutions. But…

Voices in the Code: Citizen Participation for Better Algorithms

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay Voices in the Code, by David G. Robinson, is finally out. I had the opportunity to read the book prior to its publication, and I could not recommend it enough. David shows how, between 2004 and 2014 in the US, experts and citizens came together to build a new kidney transplant matching algorithm. David’s work is a breath of fresh air for the debate…

Between too much and too little: a tentative framework for putting trust in government into context 

In a dialogue with his disciple Tsze-kung, Confucius advises that a government needs three things: weapons, food, and trust. And if a ruler cannot maintain the three of them, he should give up the weapons first and the food next.  Fast forward over two thousand years, and trust in government remains a hot topic. After all, rule of law and democratic institutions clearly require some minimal…

One of the best guides on civic tech (and when not to build it) is finally out

As the saying goes: “if you think technology is the solution, you don’t understand the problem”. The same goes for technologies for civic or public service purposes. In fact, many argue that a common trait of good professionals working in the digital space is their capacity to, whenever necessary, politely convince their counterparts that their new “app” idea sucks.  Over time, practitioners…

Easter readings: new selection of articles and notes on democracy, open government, civic tech and others

Open government’s uncertain effects and the Biden opportunity: what now?  A review of 10 years of open government research reveals: 1) “a transparency-driven focus”,  2) “methodological concerns”, and 3) [maybe not surprising] “the lack of empirical evidence regarding the effects of open government”. My take on this is that these findings are, somewhat, self-reinforcing.  First, the early focus…

46 favorite reads on democracy, civic tech and a few other interesting things

I’ve recently been exchanging with some friends on a list of favorite reads from 2020. While I started with a short list, it quickly grew: after all, despite the pandemic, there has been lots of interesting stuff published in the areas that I care about throughout the year. While the final list of reads varies in terms of subjects, breadth, depth and methodological rigor, I picked these 46 for…

I just came across the recently published data from the GenForwardproject in the United States, a nationally representative survey of over 3,000 young adults aged 18-36 conducted by political scientist Cathy Cohen at the University of Chicago. The new data on race, young adults, and the 2020 elections paints a challenging picture of how young adults in the country perceive institutions and…

Digital Government: Minding the Empathy Gap*

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you’re pulling on a door marked “pull” only to realize that you have to “push” to open it? These ubiquitous poorly designed doors are called “Norman doors” that both confuse and embarrass door openers. 

Online, certain experiences are not so…

Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, legislative bodies around the world have struggled to function. Meanwhile, from Europe, all the way to Australia and Pakistan, calls to ensure that national legislatures continue to operate abound. In the UK, over 100 MPs signed an open letter asking for the creation of a digital parliament to “maintain democratic traditions in accordance with…

2020 and beyond: 11 predictions at the intersection of technology and citizen engagement

pic by @jmuniz on Unsplah

The rapid evolution of digital technologies has been changing relationships between governments and citizens around the world.  These shifts make it the right time to pose the key question a new World Bank publication explores: 

Will digital technologies, both those that are already widespread and those that are still emerging, have substantial impacts on the way…