Getting CivicTech Right for Democracy: Setting expectations and conditions for impact.
In October 2023, the OECD brought together key actors involved in the CivicTech ecosystem to assess whether CivicTech has met the expectations citizens and government have placed on them, to define the conditions that would allow them to effectively support citizen participation and representation, and to reflect on the role governments can have in developing and deploying such tools.
The event, “Getting Civic Tech Right for Democracy”, convened more than 150 participants from government, academia, civic tech organisations and international players. This article summarises the Event’s lively and rich discussions that will continue on a series of articles in the months to come.
Setting the right expectations for CivicTech
The OECD understands CivicTech as the use of digital technologies to reinforce democracy by enabling the public to be informed, participate in decision and policymaking, and increase governments’ responsiveness and accountability. CivicTech tools can be developed and deployed by a variety of actors, including governments, parliaments, the private sector, not-for-profit organisations, and citizens.
For more than 20 years, CivicTech tools have shown a great potential to improve the way citizens and government interact. For example, Make.org platform allowed citizens to participate in transnational consultations, Estonia’s Rahvaalgatus connects citizens to the legislative process, and the Decidim platform has increase the reach of deliberative processes in Spain and the European Union. Yet, CivicTech is facing a paradox, as described by former French Member of Parliament, Paula Forteza. On the one hand, the CivicTech ecosystem has reached a level of maturity, as testified by the interest in CivicTech and the quality of the tools available. On the other hand, we are experiencing a moment of democratic fatigue, with citizens being frustrated by the low impact of participatory processes, including those powered by digital tools. As indicated by the 2021 OECD Trust Survey, only one third of citizens believe that their governments would adopt the opinions expressed during a public consultation.
Could it be a question of setting the right expectations? Initial promises were too high as “it was impossible that technology alone would solve all those [democracy] problems”, suggested Matt Stempeck, founder of the Civic Tech Field Guide. CivicTech was, in fact, created to reinforce not replace, existing institutions and democratic practices. And thus, the lenses to measure its success should reflect this complementarity.
In addition, as noted by Wietse Van Rasbeeck, co-founder of Citizen Lab, we must reflect on the conditions that enable CivicTech to be successful and have a positive impact in building trust and reinforcing democracy, starting with the political will to commit to the results of participatory processes enabled by digital tools.
What can governments do to create the right conditions for CivicTech?
Governments have a pivotal role to play to increase the impact and sustainability of CivicTech. Dominik Hierlemann, Senior Advisor on Democracy at the Bertelsmann Stiftung, suggested governments should focus on three key elements: political leadership, cultural change inside administrations, and a strong policy framework. Political leadership is essential to champion ambitious participatory initiatives where citizens can have a clear and tangible impact. The need for cultural change in administrations — in other words, being receptive to the adoption of CivicTech tools and new ways of working with citizens– is a recurring theme when it comes to digitalisation. Even in a pioneer city such as Barcelona a certain resistance to change persists across civil servants, as testified by Marc Serra Solé, Member of Barcelona Provincial Council.
Furthermore, institutionalising or embedding CivicTech tools within democratic institutions and processes would allow institutions to overcome “the pilot phase”. This can be done through a legal or policy framework that defines how to and when to use digital tools or by integrating digital platforms in administrative processes such as petitions. Robert Bjarnason, founder of Your Priorities, share the example of Iceland has an open-source platform for citizen participation that is fully integrated in Reykjavik’s administrative processes. Similarly, Renato Simões, Secretary for Social Participation at the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil shared the recent deployment of Brazil Participativo, a federal-level digital platform embedded in the design of the Multi-annual Participatory plan and using the Federal Government’s digital identity to facilitate users’ registration.
Ensuring CivicTech is fit-for-democracy
The success of CivicTech is dependent on its compatibility and complementarity to existing democratic processes and institutions. Alexandre Quintanilha, Member of Parliament in Portugal, noted that the creation of a culture of participation and dialogue is a prerequisite for the success of any participatory tool or process. However, such a culture can only emerge in contexts were civic space and civic freedoms are properly protected. A healthy civic space, online and offline, is therefore an essential pre-condition for thriving and impactful CivicTech tools.
Speakers reminded that the choices in the design and the development of digital tools are important. On that, Carlos Lucas de Tena, Executive Director of the Center for the Governance of Change at IE University, presented the concept of Democracy-Affirming Technologies, or technologies that are intentionally crafted to actively uphold and encourage fundamental democratic values, principles, and rights, and suggested that CivicTech tools could be framed as such.
In addition, CivicTech can suffer from other challenges such as scalability, interoperability of systems, and sustainability of projects. Carlos Santiso, Head of the OECD Innovative, Digital and Open Governance Division mentioned that funding is key to ensure tech-based projects become sustainable and remain up-to-date with innovation like the adoption of AI. Adriana Groh, Director of the German Sovereign Tech Fund, referred to the “tragedy of digital commons” of open-source CivicTech projects stagnating in online repositories, and Henri Verdier, France’s Ambassador for Digital Affairs, advocated for public initiatives to financially sustain open-source software.
CivicTech tools must be designed to channel democratic values and to ensure accessibility and inclusion for all. These topics are more important than ever, as the massive adoption of generative AI creates new opportunities to scale, while at the same time coming with new challenges that question the very meaning of participation.
A renewed interest for CivicTech in a global perspective
The Event marked the beginning of a conversations at the OECD and a milestone of ongoing discussion on the same topic in other international foras, such us the Summit for Democracy and the UN 2030 Agenda. Elsa Pilichowski, Director of the OECD Public Governance Directorate reiterated the importance to bridge the democracy and CivicTech agendas as done in in the recently adopted Action Plan on Digital Democracy and suggested to fully include CivicTech in the OECD work leading to the 2024 Global Forum on Reinforcing Democracy.
Minna-Liina Lind, Undersecretary for Global Affairs at the Estonian Foreign Ministry reflected on the importance of CivicTech tools as a way to elevate the voice of citizens and civil society at the international level, including in the context of global challenges such as climate change. While digitalisation seems to be an irreversible trend, recent evidence shows a gradual democratic decline across the world, noted Kevin Casas-Zamora, Secretary General of International IDEA. CivicTech can play an important role in proving that technology and democratic values can advance together.
In their closing remarks, OECD’s knowledge partners, Bertelsmann Stiftung, IE University and International IDEA, committed to continue the conversation and to build synergies on the field of CivicTech. In 2024, the OECD will publish an international study on how governments are meaningfully using CivicTech tools and what actions can be taken to ensure that solutions are fit-for-democracy.
This article was written by Giulia Cibrario and Mauricio Mejia.
