Civic technology
Civic technology, or civic tech, is the idea of using technology to enhance the relationship between people and government with software for communications, decision-making, service delivery, and political process. It includes information and commu ...
is technology that enables engagement and participation, or enhances the relationship between the people and government, by enhancing citizen communications and public decision, improving government delivery of services and infrastructure. This comparison of civic technology platforms compares platforms that are designed to improve citizen participation in governance, distinguished from technology that directly deals with government infrastructure.
Platform types
Graham Smith of the
University of Southampton
The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...
, in his 2005 book ''Beyond the Ballot'', used the following categorization of democratic innovations:
* Electoral innovations"aim to increase
electoral turnout"
* Consultation innovations"aim to inform decision-makers of citizens' views"
*
Deliberative
Deliberative may refer to:
*Deliberative agent
*Deliberative assembly
*Deliberative Council of Princes and Ministers
*Deliberative democracy
*Deliberative mood
*Deliberative opinion poll
*Deliberative planning
*Deliberative process privilege
*Deli ...
innovations"aim to bring citizens together to deliberate on policy issues, the outcomes of which may influence decision-makers"
* Co-governance innovations"aim to give citizens significant influence during the process of decision-making"
*
Direct democracy
Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate directly decides on policy initiatives, without legislator, elected representatives as proxies, as opposed to the representative democracy m ...
innovations"aim to give citizens final decision-making power on key issues"
*
E-democracy
E-democracy (a blend of the terms Electronic publishing, electronic and democracy), also known as digital democracy or Internet democracy, uses information and communication technology (ICT) in politics, political and governance processes. The ...
innovations"use information technology to engage citizens in the decision-making process"
Comparison chart
See also
*
Comparison of Internet forum software
This article outlines the general features commonly found in various Internet forum software packages. It highlights major features that the manager of a forum might want and should expect to be commonly available in different forum software. The ...
*
Liquid democracy
*
Open government
Open government is the governing doctrine which maintains that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction, it opposes reason of state a ...
References
{{Reflist
Political software
Open government
Voting
Direct democracy
Civic technology platforms