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Can Direct Democracy Be Scaled? The Promise of Networked Democracy and the Affordances of Decision-Making Software

Objective

The project investigates the recent rise of networked forms of political participation in Europe. It does so by analyzing a set of political parties—namely, Podemos in Spain, the Five Star Movement in Italy, and the Pirate Parties in Sweden and Germany—that encourage the participation of all citizens in political deliberation through the use of networked media. More specifically, the research focuses on the technical affordances and uses of the decision-making software adopted by these parties to advance a new idea of democracy, which mixes elements of representative democracy and direct democracy.

Software such as LiquidFeedback, Agora Voting, Appgree, Loomio, AdHocracy, and DemocracyOS allow users not only to select party delegates and representatives but also to submit, discuss, and vote their own policy proposals. On the one hand, these emerging practices can be seen as an extension to the electronic realm of participatory decision-making processes associated with recent social movements for “real democracy.” On the other hand, the existence of party delegates, the adoption of majority voting, and the choice of participating in the elections signal that these parties acccept representative democracy, even as they vow to transform it from within.

By bringing together different theoretical perspectives in media studies, political theory, and social movement studies, the research maps how these different conceptions of democracy are reflected in the design of decision-making software. A first set of semi-structured interviews asks software developers to discuss the political values embedded in the software—e.g. whether the software privileges consensus or majority rule, temporary delegation or representation, public or anonymous voting. A second set of interviews asks users whether they are aware of the values embedded in the software, have considered their limitations, have suggestions on how to improve them, or see online deliberation as inherently flawed.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2015

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Coordinator

SCUOLA NORMALE SUPERIORE
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 180 277,20
Address
PIAZZA DEI CAVALIERI 7
56126 PISA
Italy

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Region
Centro (IT) Toscana Pisa
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 180 277,20
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