Design of an Advanced Platform for Citizen Participation Committed to Ensuring Freedom of Speech

This paper presents a proposal for an advanced system of debate in an environment of digital democracy which overcomes the limitations of existing systems. We have been especially careful in applying security procedures in telematic systems, for they are to offer citizens the guarantees that society demands. New functional tools have been included to ensure user authentication and to permit anonymous participation where the system is unable to disclose or even to know the identity of system users. The platform prevents participation by non-entitled persons who do not belong to the authorized group from giving their opinion. Furthermore, this proposal allows for verifying the proper function of the system, free of tampering or fraud intended to alter the conclusions or outcomes of participation. All these tools guarantee important aspects of both a social and technical nature, most importantly: freedom of expression, equality and auditability

Voice or chatter? Making ICTs work for transformative engagement

What are the conditions in democratic governance that make information and communication technology (ICT)-mediated citizen engagement transformative? While substantial scholarship exists on the role of the Internet and digital technologies in triggering moments of political disruption and cascading upheavals, academic interest in the sort of deep change that transforms institutional cultures of democratic governance, occurring in ‘slow time’, has been relatively muted. This study attempts to fill this gap. It is inspired by the idea of participation in everyday democracy and seeks to explore how ICT-mediated citizen engagement can promote democratic governance and amplify citizen voice. The study involved empirical explorations of citizen engagement initiatives in eight sites – two in Asia (India and Philippines), one in Africa (South Africa), three in South America (Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay) and two in Europe (Netherlands and Spain).DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

Country overview South Africa

South Africa offers wide spread ICT infrastructure in the country and adoption is high amongst the population. With greater ICT availability, there is a growing possibility for citizens to hold government accountable, by sending immediate feedback on service performance through digital technologies. But ICT-mediated citizen engagement is still a novelty and in its infancy stages. This State of the Art report intends to provide a contemporary picture of citizen engagement in South Africa and the extent to which ICTs are contributing towards citizen participation with government. The paper is broken down into three sections: the first section is an overview of government policies around citizen participation and a national overview on ICT-mediated citizen engagement; the second section explores some of the emerging ICT-mediated spaces in South Africa; and the last section uses the theory of structuration to analyse digital state-citizen engagement.DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

The effectiveness of State of the Province Adress (SOPA) as a public communication campaign in Limpopo Province, South Africa

The dawn of democracy in South Africa ushered an increasing need for government to interact with the citizens. This study assesses the use of the state of the province address (SOPA) as a communication platform to keep the citizens abreast of the government programmes and deliverables in Limpopo province, South Africa. SOPA is broadcasted mainly from the legislature whilst the communities can view the proceedings in identified public viewing areas. Since SOPA’s inception, there is limited academic studies conducted on the effectiveness of SOPA in general and public viewing areas in particular. To fill this paucity of research, this study reviewed the government communication strategy with specific reference to government communication and information systems (GCIS) which emphasises on the need for government to interact with stakeholders at all levels. Using communication effectiveness and stakeholder theories (also called Izimbizo), this study evaluated the planning process of SOPA and citizens’ views on the effectiveness of the public viewing areas. In-depth interviews and survey were conducted with campaign planners and Mokwakwaila citizens respectively. Data was analysed using thematic analysis for interviews and descriptive statistics for survey. This study found that the internal planning process of the campaign (SOPA) is accordingly linked to the strategic objectives of the province, but inadequate funding hinders the longevity of the campaign. It is also this study’s finding that whilst citizens found SOPA to be effective they however feel that government does not do enough to source feedback after the campaign. This study recommends that there could be an exploration of the new media utility to produce more awareness about the campaign in order to accommodate audience that do not use radio and newspapers. The implications on campaign planners is that they should conduct feedback to improve public participation in future government programmesCommunication ScienceM.A. (Communication

Support for the Rightscon Toronto 2018 conference

The report documents key advances, significant research findings, important outcomes, and innovative outputs of the conference. RightsCon is the leading global summit on human rights in the digital age. By bringing together a diverse community of world leading experts, a wide-ranging program addressed key issues at the intersection of human rights, technology, and society. Thousands of the world’s leading experts convened to participate in, and advance conversations around these issues. Twelve hundred participants (from Azerbaijan, Brazil, Cameroon, Egypt, Gambia, Honduras, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Thailand, Uganda, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and other Global South countries) received complimentary tickets

Reversing the Tide: Towards a New US Strategy to Support Democracy and Counter Authoritarianism

The rise of authoritarianism, coupled with the erosion of democracy, threatens global stability, America's economic and security alliances, and respect for human dignity. In each of the last 15 consecutive years, abuses of human rights and assaults on core democratic institutions and practices have accelerated around the globe.1 This alarming confluence requires an urgent, bold, generational response that places support for democracy and countering authoritarianism at the heart of our foreign policy and national security strategy. US leadership in defending established democracies, supporting nascent democracies, and challenging autocrats—while putting our own house in better order—will necessitate a reordering of priorities, plans, and budgets. This report is both a call to action for US leadership and a roadmap for a practical, bipartisan path forward, providing suggesting seven strategies on how to support democracy and counter authoritarianism

Deliberative Democracy in the EU. Countering Populism with Participation and Debate. CEPS Paperback

Elections are the preferred way to freely transfer power from one term to the next and from one political party or coalition to another. They are an essential element of democracy. But if the process of power transfer is corrupted, democracy risks collapse. Reliance on voters, civil society organisations and neutral observers to fully exercise their freedoms as laid down in international human rights conventions is an integral part of holding democratic elections. Without free, fair and regular elections, liberal democracy is inconceivable. Elections are no guarantee that democracy will take root and hold, however. If the history of political participation in Europe over the past 800 years is anything to go by, successful attempts at gaining voice have been patchy, while leaders’ attempts to silence these voices and consolidate their own power have been almost constant (Blockmans, 2020). Recent developments in certain EU member states have again shown us that democratically elected leaders will try and use majoritarian rule to curb freedoms, overstep the constitutional limits of their powers, protect the interests of their cronies and recycle themselves through seemingly free and fair elections. In their recent book How Democracies Die, two Harvard professors of politics write: “Since the end of the Cold War, most democratic breakdowns have been caused not by generals and soldiers but by elected governments themselves” (Levitsky and Ziblatt, 2018)

A New European Parity-Democracy Sex Equality Model and why it won't Fly in the United States

This Article argues that over the past years, in Europe, some instruments and policies dealing with gender equality both at the national and supra-national level reflect a move from a narrow antidiscrimination frame to a broader model that tackles the underparticipation and disempowerment of women in public and private life as a deficiency of democracy and a problem of citizenship. By analyzing specific parity measures that have been adopted recently in some European Member States, such as electoral and corporate board gender quotas in publically held companies, the Article posits that a new understanding between parity democracy, sex equality and antidiscrimination law is evolving and explains why a combination of legal, historical, cultural, ideological and political factors make it unlikely that a similar development will take place in the United States

Elections in digital times: a guide for electoral practitioners

Strengthening democracy and electoral processes in the era of social media and Artificial Intelligence Democracy requires free, periodic, transparent, and inclusive elections. Freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and the right to political participation are also critical to societies ruled by the respect of human rights. In today’s rapidly evolving digital environment, opportunities for communication between citizens, politicians and political parties are unprecedented –– with information related to elections flowing faster and easier than ever, coupled with expanded opportunities for its verification and correction by a growing number of stakeholders. However, with billions of human beings connected, and disinformation and misinformation circulating unhinged around the networks, democratic processes and access to reliable information are at risk. With an estimated 56.8% of the world’s population active on social media and an estimate of 4 billion eligible voters, the ubiquity of social networks and the impact of Artificial Intelligence can intentionally or unintentionally undermine electoral processes, thereby delegitimizing democracies worldwide. In this context, all actors involved in electoral processes have an essential role to play. Electoral management bodies, electoral practitioners, the media, voters, political parties, and civil society organizations must understand the scope and impact of social media and Artificial Intelligence in the electoral cycle. They also need to have access to the tools to identify who instigates and spreads disinformation and misinformation, and the tools and strategies to combat it. This handbook aims to be a toolbox that helps better understand the current scenario and share experiences of good practices in different electoral settings and equip electoral practitioners and other key actors from all over the world to ensure the credibility of the democratic system in times of profound transformations

Remixing Rawls: Constitutional Cultural Liberties in Liberal Democracies

This article develops a liberal theory of cultural rights that must be guaranteed by just legal and political institutions. People form their own individual conceptions of the good in the cultural space constructed by the political societies they inhabit. This article argues that only rarely do individuals develop views of what is valuable that diverge more than slightly from the conceptions of the good widely circulating in their societies. In order for everyone to have an equal opportunity to autonomously form their own independent conception of the good, rather than merely following others, culture must be democratically controlled. Equal respect for members of a liberal democracy requires that all citizens have roughly equal opportunities to do things like make movies, publish novels, and exhibit paintings. This article contends that the contemporary American legal order fails to guarantee that all cititizens have roughly equal opportunities to shape and influence their shared culture. Guaranteeing the liberty to do so would require reforms to many areas of law, including applying anti-discrimination law more broadly to the conduct of cultural organizations, expanding fair use protections in copyright law, limiting the ability of businesses to arbitrarily refuse service to customers, and restricting private control of capital in order to democratize the means of cultural production