Good governance is a game and the prize is winning citizens
Why digitalisation within government should always be about community, clear communication and inclusion
“People take a decision to move or to stay in a city. It’s my job to convince them Monheim is the best place to live.”
We’re sipping coffee with Daniel Zimmermann, the mayor of Monheim am Rhein discussing digital citizen participation and the importance of local communities. At the time of his election, he was the youngest mayor in North Rhine-Westphalia, and he has large ambitions for his city.
Zimmermann and his team of city councillors have gone in at the deep end. The city is very progressive with digitalisation in general, and at the moment they’re experimenting with numerous smart and digital systems in order to improve the relationship of citizens to their city.
The reason for our visit was to undertaking workshops with Zimmermann and the city’s citizen participation department to help them optimise the use of their Civocracy platform, which currently has 290 active users and 84 comprehensive submitted ideas. Zimmermann, who reads each submitted proposition, has already been impressed by his citizens’ ideas.
“One citizen has proposed that we adapt our pedestrian traffic lights to be the shape of the ‘goose girl’ (the girl from our city’s coat of arms). It is a funny idea, but one that we want to implement. There was also a very good idea to build a new cycle path connecting the south of the city to the train station, and this is now in development. Our citizens are quite creative, and we want to use this creativity.”
Local democracy is a powerful thing when done properly. Transparency and good communication being core pillars. “I’m a great fan of local democracy,” Zimmermann tells us, “because it’s so much easier to communicate with all your citizens. I couldn’t imagine how in national governments you can keep this bond with all the people who are interested in participating. And in my opinion, being engaged at the local level is the best way to learn about democracy and consensus-building.”
In order to develop and nurture a strong local democracy, and generate true satisfaction in communities, we’re told that there are three core elements:
- Genuine participation opportunities
- Well-informed decisions
- Frequent and open communications
The use of digital tools shouldn’t be so daunting, however, as this is the natural progression within democracy. “I don’t see any specific reason why you should be anxious about the use of new technologies which simply enhance your work processes, because as a mayor or a local politician you’re always facing your citizens. The Civocracy digital citizen participation platform gives us the possibility to involve more people in decision-making processes. I cannot be at all places in the city at the same time, and the same goes for the other 40 city councillors. There may be people we didn’t hear or didn’t listen to as much as others, and the platform now helps us to involve these people as well.”
“In my opinion, cities are competing with each other. Each has its own schools, cultural events, public transportation services etc, and so it’s my job to develop the most attractive place to live. So providing citizens with a way to express themselves by offering a digital citizen participation platform is one bonus point that may convince people Monheim is the right place to be. The Civocracy platform is, in our opinion, the ideal system to give citizens the opportunity to participate in a bottom-up process.”
Monheim is leading the way in developing more inclusive cities. And the path is a straightforward one: put citizens at the centre, and show them their voices have an impact.
You can view Monheim’s Civocracy platform here.
For more information on digital citizen participation, or to sign up for your own Civocracy platform, please contact chloe@civocracy.org.
Authored by Emily McDonnell, Head of Communications and Partnerships.
