by Innovation in Politics Institute
News and everything you need to know on digital democracy, online participation and e-voting
Opinion
Austin Mackell, CEO of Stone Transparency.

Only Research Transparency Can Defeat Disinformation

Disinformation is a major threat to democracy. The answer, argues Austin Mackell, CEO of Stone Transparency, argues that we need new forms of transparency in journalism so that readers can decide for themselves who to trust.

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The democracy technologies team. From left to right: Graham Wetherall-Grujić, Laura Giesen, Maddelena Landi, Daniel Mackisack, Raphaëlle Bres.

Looking Back on 2023

The team looks back at the media and events that inspired them the most in 2023 and thinks forward to what might do the same in the year to come

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From left to right: Axel Dauchez, Asma Mhalla, Clémence Pène, Martial Foucault, Adrien Duguet, Boris Julien-Vauzelle, Bilyana Kotsakova, Alicia Combaz

Raising the Democratic Shield

AI is increasingly being used as a tool to create viral disinformation, fake videos, and social media bots. This malicious content can (and already did) influence electoral processes and outcomes. The latest and most alarming example is the Slovakian national election. These developments pose a significant threat to the integrity of democratic processes. As European elections are approaching next year, how should we react to these dangers?

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Participation Is Not a Panacea for Democratic Decline

On the dangers of letting a positive surge in citizen participation dull the pain of a struggling representative system.

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Don’t Use Deliberative Democracy to Distract From Regulation

The idea that AI regulation should be shaped by a global citizens' assembly seems to be gaining in popularity. But when tech companies themselves are behind these deliberative processes, it can end up looking less like a credible effort to democratise, and more like a distraction from the effort to regulate quickly.

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Open-source Software: Balancing Pros and Cons for Government Leaders

Previous guest articles have argued for and against open-source software for digital democracy. In this guest article Wietse van Ransbeeck of CitizenLab adds the option of 'open-code' to the debate – and advocates for a combination.

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How Liquid Democracy Won a Pub Quiz

It’s a Tuesday night just outside of Vienna. The teams are assembled. The hosts (Laura Giesen and myself) are prepared. And old rivalries start to flare up. The Innovation in Politics Institute is gathered for its yearly team retreat, and as is tradition, the first evening is concluded with a classic pub quiz. Except this […]

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Beyond a ‘One-Size Fits-All’-Approach for Digital Participation Tools

The needs of youth are often overlooked when local governments implement digital participation instruments. Cato Waeterloos is a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven and an affiliate researcher at Ghent University, argues for a strategy of targeted diversity.

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Juliane Baruck

Democratic Reform Cannot Ignore Reasons for Unequal Participation

In her answer to Julian Burrett's guest article, Juliane Baruck agrees with the problem identified but argues that Julian Burrett’s solution ignores the issue of unequal participation.

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Citizens Should be Able to Direct Parliamentarians

Julian Burrett is approaching his third UK election and is offering voters a direct say in the UK Parliamentary process via online platform valuemy.vote.

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Decent Digital ID – I Want It and Democracy Needs It

While we weren’t looking, identity systems for now critical parts of our lives became an absolute mess. Perhaps it’s time we did something about that.

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The World According to AI

Politicians are automatically men, and women are overtly sexualised: Our experiences with the biases of AI image generators.

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Our Favorite Books, Series and Podcasts of 2022

The team looks back at the books, TV series and podcasts that inspired them the most in 2022.

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The team tested how ChatGPT could be useful for Democracy Technologies

ChatGPT is the latest natural language chat program out of AI research lab OpenAI. Having taken the internet by storm with a surprising array of capabilities, we decided to see what the impact on democracy (and our work) might be, by asking it a few questions of our own.

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Elon Musk’s Lessons in Democracy

Elon Musk has been staging his takeover of Twitter as an exercise in radical democracy. The resulting chaos is further proof that the regulation of social media belongs in public hands.

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