Institute for Electronic Participation delivered an assessment presentation of the On-line Citizen’s forum “European Debates” at the workshop Reframing Democracy-Making Through Digital Tools held on 7th June 2022 in Warsaw, Poland.
The workshop aimed to foster an exchange of success stories among experienced practitioners from Central and Eastern Europe who have developed and run digitally-based citizen deliberation and legislative initiative projects.
The success factors and criteria assessment for the “European Debates” digital democracy case from Slovenia was based on Assessment Framework for e-Participation developed by the CODE Europe project.
The assessment framework includes inputs (general conditions), activities (implementation) and results (outputs, outcomes and impact). Assessing the outcome of the e-participation initiative is particularly important within the framework of Theory of Change.
Assessment Framework developed by the CODE Europe project identified the following desired outcomes of e-participation initiatives:
- satisfaction of participants (they acquire new knowledge and skills);
- satisfaction of public authorities (they gain valuable input for their work);
- direct effect on political decision-making by the initiative.
Despite having a limited effect on political decision-making when considering involving citizen contributions into the work at the European parliament, the On-line Citizen’s forum “European Debates” provided a new way for MEPs to initiate public consultation and to seek public reflection, opinion exchange and co-creation of policy proposals with citizens. Also, the on-line forum contributed to a stronger sense of civic empowerment as an e-participation platform providing direct interaction with Slovenian MEPs from 2006 until 2013.
Please follow the slides below to view the workshop presentation of On-line Citizen’s forum “European Debates” success factors and criteria assessment.
The workshop Reframing Democracy-Making Through Digital Tools outlined the true potential of technologies to bring about more inclusive citizen-driven legislature, while also offering concrete steps ahead towards its establishment as formal and valuable tool.
The event ultimately contributed to a debate for the further promotion of the good practices and success stories of citizen deliberation within societies and political models.
An event was organised by the European Liberal Forum (ELF).