This was originally written in 2020 after the workshop.
How can digital technologies strengthen our democracies? The view from Agora, London.
In August 2020, the Democracy & Governance programme in Agora collaborated with the European Forum Alpbach (EFA) and Agora’s partner think tanks in the Open Think Tank Network (OTTN) to ask and answer the question: “How can digital technologies strengthen our democracies?”. In particular, Agora focused on participation in democracy. This blog summaries the outputs from this workshop.
Our expert input came from Mark Cridge, Chief Executive of mySociety. mySociety is a UK based social enterprise which helps people to be active citizens in their society. Their services and research are used by individuals, journalists, and civil society in over 40 countries worldwide. For example, they help people to report neighbourhood problems in their local area on FixMyStreet.com and help people gain access to information from public bodies by presenting Freedom of Information requests on WhatDoTheyKnow.com.
What exactly is civic technology?
The workshop discussion was themed around the concept of civic technology. In broad terms, these technologies are a type of tool that is used to connect citizens and their governments. They are at the core of the citizen-government relationship with the transfer of power and services. For example, they might be used to help people participate in their politics and society, or they might be used by the government for the provision of public services.
Why is this important to our democracy?
We posed the question: what do we need in a democracy? Democracy needs citizens to be informed and engaged with active citizens. Therefore, any technologies that are used should be for this purpose – to either pass information from a government to a citizen or to help them connect to the government. Mark explained that civic technology should always be more civic and less technology and that technologies should always be designed with, and not just for, the citizen.
Workshop outputs
The groups who participated in the workshop produced policy suggestions for how digital technologies can be used to increase participation in democracy:
- Independent task force: They would review information, before election deadlines, to reveal information of how and why individuals have been targeted for election campaigns.
- Apps: Some creative ways of using apps were suggested. For example, citizens could actively report fake news into an app that would use an algorithm to remove fake news. This would mean that information would be more factual and display a sign when facts are verified. This app would also provide a digital literacy curriculum. Another suggestion was to use apps to counteract fake-news by involving all news outlets and politicians. In this way, it aims to overcome the monopolisation of truth and fact checking.
- Diversity in democracy: Another way for digital technologies to be used is by providing an online platform for MPs. There would be a different interface for citizens and for MPs. This would enable them to deal with constituency matters and to share information with the public, as well as curb parliamentary elitism by allowing people to hold office whilst having other demands on their time, such as caring or parenting roles. The public would be in direct consultation with MPs by upvoting on issues that are most important to them. The aim of this technology would be to foster greater accessibility, transparency and inclusivity between citizens and the government.
The outputs in full can be viewed on the Policy Kitchen platform here.
Challenges in implementing digital technologies
A major challenge that we face today, which has become an even bigger issue during the pandemic, is being able to trust those in power. This is reduced when the way decisions are made in government is not clear, when information is withheld from the public, and when politicians are not wholly transparent or honest with the public. The public is much less likely to be willing and able to participate in politics if they feel that those representing them are dishonest and do not understand the reality that they face everyday.
These ideas for how digital technologies can be used aim to address this issue of trust. They aim to increase connection and inclusivity between citizens and their representatives, as well as battle misinformation, and improve access to politics. As a result, participation in politics becomes more meaningful, authentic, as well as inclusive, so that the least represented can still have their voices heard. In many ways, the pandemic has increased the speed of using digital technologies. For example, in the UK, the government relied heavily on data visualisations to communicate information about virus cases, as well as a Test and Trace app to track if positive cases of the virus were in contact with others.
Concluding thoughts and the future
Going forward, some considerations will need to be taken into account before digital technologies are implemented more widely in democracies. For example, not all countries have the data and technology infrastructure to implement the digital technologies listed, so their use is limited. There is an additional problem of having the necessary capacity to keep data secure against cyber attacks; this is increasingly becoming a problem, yet it is crucial to maintaining public trust. Caution should also be applied; ultimately, these technologies should benefit citizens. The pandemic over the past year has only revealed and deepened inequalities. As our expert speaker emphasised, it is citizens that can improve democracies. Technology in and of itself will not improve democracy, so it must be inclusive and seek to address inequalities such that it is inclusive and representative of all.
Preeti Kaur 