Next-generation engagement tools for 21st century democracy.

• Engagement tech
• Participatory democracy
• Digital participation platforms

The Deliberative Democracy Digest publishes a roundup of recent developments in the theory and practice of deliberative democracy. It is the companion piece of the academic publication Journal of Deliberative Democracy (formerly Journal of Public Deliberation).

• Participatory democracy
• Learn about civic tech
• News and blogs

Book edited By Baogang He, Michael Breen, James Fishkin (2021)

• books

• Participatory democracy
• Books

Dialogue is a digital platform for building consensus via ideas, comments and ratings in a shared space. Manage closed conversations with defined groups of stakeholders, or open up a public debate.

• The Tech
• Engagement tech
• Participatory democracy

Public engagement has never been easier

• Participatory budgeting
• Budget explorers
• Policy simulators

assessing and analyzing the current state of media and prescribing technologies, practices, and ethics that might foster and promote deliberation

• The Tech
• The People
• Engagement tech

Makers of Citizen Space, Dialogue, and Simulator.

• The Tech
• Engagement tech
• Participatory democracy

The Deliberative Democracy Lab (formerly the Center for Deliberative Democracy), housed within the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University, is devoted to research about democracy and public opinion obtained through Deliberative Polling®.

• Research and policy centers
• Surveys & polling
• Academia

The OECD's 700+ case studies of citizen juries, councils, assemblies, and more

• Participatory democracy
• Learn about civic tech
• Civic tech catalogs

O coletivo delibera trabalha com uma forma inédita e democrática de atuação da sociedade nas decisões de pautas políticas do país, de comunidades, de cidades e até mesmo de bairros.

• Engagement tech
• Participatory democracy
• Democratic Innovations

A report for lawmakers, governments and policymakers at national and European level, 2023

• reports

• Engagement tech
• Participatory democracy
• Fieldwide resources

Academic center at the University of Canberra, Australia and publisher of the Journal of Deliberative Democracy

• Research and policy centers
• Academia

A research article in the Journal of Deliberative Democracy by Espen Leirset

• Academia
• Peer-reviewed research
• Communicating with the people

The Journal of Deliberative Democracy (formerly the Journal of Public Deliberation) is an open access journal publishing articles that shape the course of scholarship on deliberative democracy.

• Participatory democracy
• Learn about civic tech
• Academia

Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy is the first book that brings together a wide range of methods used in the study of deliberative democracy.

• methodology
• books

• Participatory democracy
• Books

The Deliberative Media Lab focused on democracies that have experienced cultural and political strife influenced and amplified by social media and reduced public deliberation. The Lab explored the historical, cultural, and technological roots of our media ecosystem, and sought solutions for enhancing global democratic deliberation.

• Media
• Research and policy centers
• Academia

Public authorities from all levels of government increasingly turn to Citizens' Assemblies, Juries, Panels and other representative deliberative processes to tackle complex policy problems ranging from climate change to infrastructure investment decisions.

• reports

• Participatory democracy
• Group decision making

The Deliberatorium is a web-based system that combines ideas from argumentation theory and social computing to address this critical challenge. Under development since 2007, it has been used by thousands of individuals in such institutions as Intel, the Federal Bureau of Land Management, and the Italian Democratic Party.

• Engagement tech
• Digital participation platforms

A platform and a process to engage Singapore citizens in policy deliberation

• research

• Engagement tech
• Surveys & polling
• Digital participation platforms

We seek to make democracy more deliberative – to empower people to talk across differences, find common ground, and build political change for the public good.

• Research and policy centers
• Academia

Bringing together 50 members of the UK public to deliberate on the use of biometrics technologies like facial recognition.

• Emerging tech
• Engagement tech
• Digital security and privacy

The Society Library (a collective intelligence institute) shared their micro-voting decision-making tool for city-level decision-making.

• cities
• guides

• Engagement tech
• Participatory democracy
• Group decision making

The AI Assembly is the first national deliberative event on AI in the United States and represents a significant step toward understanding public sentiment on AI-related issues and shaping the conversation around the role of AI systems in society, with a focus on transparency, accountability, and responsible use.  

• Artificial Intelligence
• Participatory democracy
• Sortition

Talk to the City is an open-source LLM interface for improving collective deliberation and decision-making by analyzing detailed, qualitative data. It aggregates responses and arranges similar arguments into clusters.

• Emerging tech
• Engagement tech
• Artificial Intelligence

Twelve like-minded European and global organizations committed to advancing democratic innovation and participation are coming together in the new Horizon project Nets4Dem.

• Participatory democracy
• Partner networks

The Center for News, Technology & Innovation will provide issue primers with research and legislative activity from around the world and host deliberative discussions among thought leaders in journalism, technology, and policy.

• Media
• Research and policy centers
• Journalism

Ampliando Democracia, un podcast para los que el voto les sabe a poco.

• podcasts

• Learn about civic tech
• Podcasts

Citizens' movement to practice democracy by sortition. Notable twist includes winning a seat in Brussels Parliament, where their elected representative must act on behalf of 50 residents chosen by lot.

• Participatory democracy
• Parliamentary and Legislative Tech
• Democratic Innovations

Weaving together the anthropological, aesthetic, and political aspects of assembly-making, What Makes An Assembly? explores the potential of assemblies to reimagine the way democracy is practised in contemporary societies.

• books

• Participatory democracy
• Books
• Democratic Innovations

Ampliando Democracia es un proyecto que promueve la reflexión sobre cómo mejorar la gobernanza, las políticas públicas y la calidad democrática a través de una participación ciudadana más profunda, inclusiva y sólida.

• Engagement tech
• Participatory democracy
• Fieldwide resources

A paper published in Nature introducing a database of public meetings in the US

• YouTube

• Communicating with the government
• Academia
• Peer-reviewed research

"Findings from this study presents a developed model that can support community engagement for urban innovation by specifying factors that influences community engagement for smart sustainable city development." by Bokolo Anthony Jr.

• Participatory democracy
• Learn about civic tech
• Academia

The OECD Guidelines for Citizen Participation Processes are intended for any public official or public institution interested in carrying out a citizen participation process.

• reports

• Participatory democracy
• Citizen Engagement

DemocracyNext is an international non-profit, non-partisan research and action institute.

• Participatory democracy
• Democratic Innovations

A magazine established to provide people working in politics and the industry of Democracy Technologies with in-depth information about new developments and technologies in the field of digital participation and deliberation, electronic voting, and other digital tools that improve political organisations.

• Learn about civic tech
• News and blogs
• Digital transformation

For the first time, a representative microcosm of the entire American electorate was brought together to a single location.

• Participatory democracy

A collection of essays edited by Ana Brandusescu and Jess Reia featuring essays from participants of the AI in the City: Building Civic Engagement and Public Trust symposium that took place remotely on February 10, 2022.

• cities

• Emerging tech
• Artificial Intelligence
• Participatory democracy

Comprova brings together journalists from 28 different Brazilian media companies to identify and explain rumors, fabricated content and manipulation tactics that might influence the 2018 presidential election campaign.

• WhatsApp

• Media
• Fight disinformation
• Partner networks

GNI helps companies respect freedom of expression and privacy rights when faced with government pressure to hand over user data, remove content, or restrict communications.

• free speech

• Media
• Fight disinformation
• Trade groups

• Media
• Fight disinformation

The Raskrinkavanje.ba platform was launched by the team of the "Why Not" organization, which has many years of experience in fact-checking, through work on checking the accuracy and consistency of statements of public officials, and monitoring the fulfillment of election promises on the Istinomjer platform.

• Media
• Fight disinformation
• Factchecking

Media Detector is a non-governmental organization established by Ukrainian journalists in January 2004.

• Media
• Fight disinformation
• Watchdogging and transparency

The e-LIberate / openDCN tool supports synchronous online deliberation with the goal of making decisions. It can be seen as an advanced chat where the times and modes of interaction are governed by Robert’s Rules of Order, a set of meeting rules that were designed to support equitable decision-making. This tool is intended to support groups of people who work together synchronously on specific issues or bound domains. 2003 e-Liberate is an online software application that facilitates online meetings utilizing standardized rules of discourse.

• Meeting tech
• Predecessors

DEDA helps data analysts, project managers and policy makers to recognize ethical issues in data projects, data management and data policies.

• toolkits
• resources

• Ethical tech and responsible tech

Though successive generations of digital technology have become increasingly powerful in the past twenty years, digital democracy has yet to realize its potential for deliberative transformation.

• Digital Public Infrastructure

When to Use Them, How to Choose & Tips for Maximum Results

• guides

• Digital participation platforms

The Disinfo Defense League (DDL) is a distributed national network of organizers, researchers and disinformation experts disrupting online racialized disinformation infrastructure and campaigns that deliberately target Black, Latinx, Asian American/Pacific Islander and other communities of color.

• racial equity
• Latinx

• Fight disinformation
• Partner networks

citizink es una plataforma de participación creada con tecnologías de código abierto

• Engagement tech
• Participatory budgeting
• Digital participation platforms

A case study of legislative theater in Mulhouse, France.

• Engagement tech
• Artistic interventions

Now defunct Finnish legislation crowdsourcing site

• Graveyard
• Parliamentary and Legislative Tech