Crowdsourcing for Democracy: Challenges and Opportunities of Citizen Engagement

Traditional patterns of how governments interact with their citizens are increasingly challenged by new (hybrid) governance models aiming to engage citizens by tapping into their knowledge and creative potential. Crowdsourcing is a method for participatory policy making which allows citizens to participate in different stages of the policy cycle. Many local and national governments have tested and applied technology enabled crowdsourcing approaches, starting from formal e-petitions to participatory budgeting, engagement in urban planning or other, in particular, local policies. Collaborative technology platforms nowadays provide unprecedented opportunities to engage larger audiences in structured dialogue and decision making. Increasingly solutions are offered by private sector or non-governmental non-for-profit organisations whose mission is to co-create public value. The panel will explore the reasons behind this shift in governance practices and identify benefits and challenges encountered when implementing crowdsourcing approaches in practice.