IGF 2018 WS #343
Internet to engage the Citizens back into democracy

Issue(s)

Organizer 1: David Lacombled, La villa numeris

Speaker 1: David Lacombled, Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Speaker 2: Jonsdottir Birgitta, Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Veronique Delmotte, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Moderator

David Lacombleed

Online Moderator

Véronique Delmotte

Rapporteur

Mathilde Aubinaud

Format

Panel - 60 Min

Interventions

Introduction of the subject by David Lacombled, president of "La Villa Numéris". He will then let all speakers to present alternately the Tools and experiments. M. Lacombled will then moderate the discussion by asking to each o the speakers questions to move on the consideration.

Diversity

- Pia Mancini, founder of the tool "Democratie Open Source", Argentinian
- Birgitta Jonsdottir, spokespersonn of "Wikileaks", member of the icelandic parliament (Pirate Party), spokespersonn for "Constitution 2.0", Icelandic
- Thorgils Volundarson, organizer of the citizen consultation "Constitution 2.0", Icelandic
- Valentin Chaput, co-founder of "Open Source Politics", French

There is a diversity with our speakers because they are coming from different places al around th wordl but their experiments in order to engage citizens back into democracy will be interessant to analyse by trying to answer our main question.

Since the beginning of the digital revolution in the end of the XX. Century, we are living an absolute change of civilisation. This mutation generates or exacerbates crisis from various natures, to which different governments have failed to bring an answer. Citizens took the habit to express their opinions in the public area, to support projects in which they believe, and to have the right to get results.
Citizens now share the feeling that the elite is not listening to them. As in the trade world, they try to take the power back through various initiatives around the world. They have the firm will to be involved in the public governance by using a participative democracy. Hence, some of them developed digital tools in order to mobilize themselves, to debate, to raise their voices beyond periods of electoral campaigns. These tools are likened to the notion of Civitechs, that is to say technology at the service of governmental transparency and civic participation.
There is no perfect model and no claim that digital tools are going to solve all problems. However, they can bring more transparency in public governance, which is essential to restore citizen’s trust in the elected representatives and be more efficient to act.
Thus, it is not about suppressing the State but about democratizing it, making it a partner of trust, coordinator of the reborn citizen’s engagement: a real restorer of trust.
The Civitech could then become an opportunity for politicians to build a common vision, in order to live better together in our cities and our nations.

M. Lacombled is here to manage the speakers and the audience members. The session will start by an introduction of M. Lacombled (5 minutes); 15 minutes will then be allow to let all speakers to present their point of view. The next 20 minutes will be used by David Lacombleed to asks questions to the speakers so the discussion can go on. The next 15 minutes are for the question of the public (in the room and online with the help of our online moderator). The last 5 minutes will be for M. Lacombled to conclude this Session.

How can we engage the citizen back into the present democracy and the present nation?

- How to engage the citizen back in the local and national activity?
- How to involve more citizens in public affairs?
- How to build bridges between physical and digital exchanges between citizens and elected representatives to relay chosen actions?

Online Participation

We will use a software named "Klaxoon". By giving a mic to the speakers, people outside can so hear the discussion, vote, intervene and ask question. The online moderator will be here to make sure the outside people will have as much time as in the room. Furthermore, we already used this tool in the past for our session.