In this section you may find all the information for Working Group 3, including its overview and various activities.
At the heart of the existing cases of constitutional deliberative reforms is a representative sample of citizens (called a mini-public) which is invited to have several enlightened discussions on constitutional reforms and to elaborate proposals on which political representatives and, sometimes, public at large are asked to vote. New technologies are generally used to reinforce the legitimacy of the process by linking the mini-public with the maxi-public at the different stages of the deliberative consultations.
At the level of the input, they can be used to inform the general public about the ongoing process, to give public the opportunity to express their opinions on the reforms to be discussed (agenda setting) and to discuss and elaborate proposals on concrete reforms. At the level of the discussion process of the mini-public, they can be used to select the issues, to inform and interact in real time with the general public, and to reach a majority decision on the reforms. Finally at the level of the output, communications technologies can be used to inform in a didactic and engaging manner about the constitutional reforms on which the political representative, and possibly the entire population will have to vote.
Objectives
Map and analyse the possible usages of the communications technologies for promoting a more inclusive, deliberative, and legitimate participative constitutional process. This WG will also analyses the possibilities of new types of actors and processes that would not have been possible without the electronic tools (for example, mini publics that may include several thousand members in widely dispersed locations).
Milestones
– Reviewing relevant initiatives, mapping different usages of the communication technologies in constitutional processes, allocation of tasks.
– New empirical research and innovative approaches to e-deliberative democracy.
– Developing new e-tools as a result of the insights of the first two years.
The Leaders of Working Group 2 are Dr. Marie Dufrasne, Dr. Raphaël Kies, and Ms. Ekaterina Chirkova. For a list of members in Working Group 3, please visit the Action’s members section here.