Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

The past two decades have seen a proliferation of large- and small-scale experiments in participatory governance. This article takes stock of claims about the potential of citizen participation to advance three values of democratic governance: effectiveness, legitimacy, and social justice. Increasing constraints on the public sector in many societies, combined with increasing demand for individual engagement and the affordances of digital technology, have paved the way for participatory innovations aimed at effective governance. Deepening legitimation deficits of representative government create opportunities for legitimacy-enhancing forms of citizen participation, but so far, the effect of participation on legitimacy is unclear. Efforts to increase social justice through citizen participation face the greatest obstacles. The article concludes by highlighting three challenges to creating successful participatory governance: the absence of systematic leadership, the lack of popular or elite consensus on the place of direct citizen participation, and the limited scope and powers of participatory innovations.

Putting the Public Back into Governance: The Challenges of Citizen Participation and Its Future

话说移动计算的历史其实已经很悠久了。Apple著名的但叫好不叫座的Newton到曾经商务人士人手一部的PDA到如今功能越来越多眼花缭乱的手机，好歹也有十几年历史了。操作系统从PalmOS到Microsoft家的Windows CE到随后细分出来的Windows Mobile，Nokia高举的Symbian大旗，四处涌动却又没有一个确定的标准与形式的Embedded Linux Rased System，还有山寨机的最爱——MTK.

移动计算：A Revolution？

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/joms.12639

A Systematic Review of the Literature on Digital Transformation: Insights and Implications for Strategy and Organizational Change

This paper updates and builds on 'Modelling with Stakeholders' Voinov and Bousquet, 2010 which demonstrated the importance of, and demand for, stakeholder participation in resource and environmental modelling. This position paper returns to the concepts of that publication and reviews the progress made since 2010. A new development is the wide introduction and acceptance of social media and web applications, which dramatically changes the context and scale of stakeholder interactions and participation. Technology advances make it easier to incorporate information in interactive formats via visualization and games to augment participatory experiences. Citizens as stakeholders are increasingly demanding to be engaged in planning decisions that affect them and their communities, at scales from local to global. How people interact with and access models and data is rapidly evolving. In turn, this requires changes in how models are built, packaged, and disseminated: citizens are less in awe of experts and external authorities, and they are increasingly aware of their own capabilities to provide inputs to planning processes, including models. The continued acceleration of environmental degradation and natural resource depletion accompanies these societal changes, even as there is a growing acceptance of the need to transition to alternative, possibly very different, life styles. Substantive transitions cannot occur without significant changes in human behaviour and perceptions. The important and diverse roles that models can play in guiding human behaviour, and in disseminating and increasing societal knowledge, are a feature of stakeholder processes today. Display Omitted Participatory modelling has become mainstream in resource and environmental management.We review recent contributions to participatory environmental modelling to identify the tools, methods and processes applied.Global internet connectivity, social media and crowdsourcing create opportunities for participatory modelling.We suggest structured mechanisms to examine and account for human biases and beliefs in participatory modelling.Advanced visualization tools, gaming, and virtual environments improve communication with stakeholders.

Modelling with stakeholders - Next generation

Many agree that digital technologies are transforming politics. They disagree, however, about the significance and character of that transformation. Many of the pioneers of understanding the distinctive dynamics of new digital media platforms—social media and collaborative production—are quite optimistic about the potential for the Internet to dramatically increase the quality of democratic governance. On the other hand, some political scientists who have examined actual patterns of political activity and expression on digital platforms come away skeptical that digital platforms will bring equality or inclusion to democratic politics. We bring these two opposed perspectives in this article by developing six models of how digital technologies might affect democratic politics: the empowered public sphere, displacement of traditional organizations by new digitally self-organized groups, digitally direct democracy, truth-based advocacy, constituent mobilization, and crowd-sourced social monitoring. Reasoning from the character of political incentives and institutional constraints, we argue that the first three revolutionary and transformative models are less likely to occur than the second three models that describe incremental contributions of technology to politics.

Six Models for the Internet + Politics

This article develops two conceptual models, based on empirical data, for assessing deliberation and decision making within United States adoptions of Participatory Budgeting (PB) The first model is results oriented whereas the second model is process oriented The two models evince the tension between inclusiveness and efficiency that emerge as US PB tries accommodating the dual goals of improved short-term service delivery and democratic deepening Each model satisfies one of these deliberate goals better Results oriented deliberation is more effective at producing viable projects whereas process oriented is better at ensuring that all participants’ voices are heard Variation suggests that decision-making in PBNYC exceeds citizens’ ability to make collective decisions with rational discourse Rather, the structural conditions of district constitution, bureaucratic constraints, and facilitator skill impacted decision-making

https://delibdemjournal.org/article/411/galley/4651/download/

Transformative Deliberations: Participatory Budgeting in the United States

Technology for Democracy in Development: Lessons from Seven Case Studies

This article develops two conceptual models, based on empirical data, for assessing deliberation and decision making within United States adoptions of Participatory Budgeting (PB). The first model is results oriented whereas the second model is process oriented. The two models evince the tension between inclusiveness and efficiency that emerge as U.S. PB tries accommodating the dual goals of improved short-term service delivery and democratic deepening. Each model satisfies one of these deliberate goals better. Results oriented deliberation is more effective at producing viable projects whereas process oriented is better at ensuring that all participants’ voices are heard. Variation suggests that decision-making in PBNYC exceeds citizens’ ability to make collective decisions with rational discourse. Rather, the structural conditions of district constitution, bureaucratic constraints, and facilitator skill impacted decision-making.

https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/10947513/gilman_gsas.harvard_0084l_10746.pdf?sequence=1

The Participatory Turn: Participatory Budgeting Comes to America

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed inequities and injustices that have existed in the United States for decades and are fundamentally built into our institutions, including our democracy. This article argues that building a stronger democracy based on civic power requires opening the policy-making process up to the public, especially to those who have been most marginalized. It offers illustrative case studies of best practices to tap into hyper-local citizen expertise by implementing principles of CrowdLaw and concludes with recommendations to guide research and practice.

Hollie Russon Gilman

Papers

Six Models for the Internet + Politics

Transformative Deliberations: Participatory Budgeting in the United States

Technology for Democracy in Development: Lessons from Seven Case Studies

The Participatory Turn: Participatory Budgeting Comes to America

Building Civic Power in Crisis