Local change of powers and the quality of e-democracy processes

Political changes at the city level have a direct impact on whether participatory platforms are scaled up or scaled down

The political will is an important factor in the creation and design of e-democracy platforms, which can be seen in projects such as Consul or Decidim. However, an understudied issue is the prevalence of the platform's usage at the city level in case of political changes. This hypothesis investigates whether political change might have an impact on platform design and the scope of its usage.

City of Gdynia https://konsultujemy.gdynia.pl/processes/programobchodow100leciaGdyni?locale=pl

Primary Question: Does the political change at the city level have an important impact on the scale of usage of e-democracy platforms? Secondary Questions: Is there a connection between the political agenda of the new local government regarding their will to uphold democratic innovations and the scale of usage of the e-democracy platform? Is there an impact of the political change at the local level on the design of the platform?

- Changes in the local government have a direct impact on the way the e-democracy platform is used - There is an impact of the scope and types of subjects that are given to the citizens after there has been a political change in local government

- Partners should identify the particular changes at the local level in cities that use Decidim across the EU

Depends of the resources that could be spared for that hypothesis.

- The results of the hypothesis may inform the cities whether there is a need to embed e-democracy platforms to facilitate the community no matter what the particular local authority is at the time. - It can also inform on how important e-democracy platforms might be across the local political spectrum.