Civic Tech
The diagnosis of a representative democracy in crisis
is widely shared: loss of confidence, disinterest or
massive rejection of political parties, record
abstention rates in elections, growing feeling of the
confiscation of power by elites out of touch with
reality. It is in this context that the "Civic Tech"
emerge, whose state of mind of its defenders is
summarized as follows: "We are citizens of the 21st
century, doing our best to interact with institutions of
the 19th century, which are based on 15th century
information technology. "(Pia Mancini, co-founder
of DemocracyOS). The Civic Tech? English
abbreviation for "civic technologies", they bring
together the various digital tools contributing to the
active participation of citizens and the transparency
of political institutions. Abolished geographical and
temporal borders, facilitated information sharing,
thanks to the Internet they claim to revitalize
democracy and involve many people. The Civic Tech
movement responds to a desire by individuals to act
at their minimum level, individuals who want to be
better heard, not only during election campaigns, and
beyond, who want to reclaim public life.
There is no denying the rise of many different digital
tools: consultation and debate platform, exchange
portal between elected officials and citizens, online
petition, comparator of political programs,
participatory budget. Some of them claim to renew
representative democracy, as we know it, others to
facilitate new, more direct and participatory forms of
democracy. Citizen engagement is also found more
broadly through all projects claiming to be in the general
interest, such as the sharing economy
(collaborative consumption), crowdfunding or open
data. All these tools have in common the youth and
enthusiasm of their protagonists, associations,
collectives, start-ups, and the desire to renew a public
life considered aging, even though governments and
communities remain rather timid, but not inactive,
faced to these opportunities. But they also have their
limits: digital divide, belief in technological
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solutionism, difficulty in building consensus,
inability to transform many projects into concrete
actions.
Engaging in participatory democracy today is based
on the desire to promote a new form of
communication, the ability to appropriate new
technologies, and the ambition to find the best tool to
meet the needs of the population.It is the
responsibility of the mayors to contribute to living
well together within their municipality and to
strengthen the ties uniting elected officials and their
citizens. This implies focusing municipal
communication on exchange, sharing, and collective
decision-making.
Today, in the digital and social media era, solutions
exist and make communication the central axis of
collective progress. The need for town halls to
acquire a collaborative platform is all the more felt
when a multitude of tools is available on the mobile
application market, and when the will to engage in
municipal life concerns a growing number of
citizens. For the mayor, the choice of the
participative democracy solution adapted to the
needs of his municipality, sufficiently relevant and
simple to implement, will then be the first step in this
transition to direct participation and collective
mobilization. Among the various deployable
functionalities for better communication at the local
level and the establishment of a participative
democracy within the municipality, it is important to
adapt the chosen tool to its needs, and to define the
priorities.
A complete presentation of the town will always be
useful, and will not only allow sharing of historical
secrets, but also to list the town hall services,
introduce the municipal team, and share useful links.
A photo album will put the town in the spotlight, and
an agenda will remind all residents of the events not
to be missed. Also, sharing medias by publishing
news, alert systems by e-mail or sms, using a direct
chat. Finally, among the modules of participatory
democracy, we can find anonymous polls, urban
reports, citizen suggestions, or even discussion
groups.
Geoffrey and Cloé-France