Organization: SmartGov - Démocratie Ouverte
Project: Parlement & Citoyens
Country: France
Government Level: National
Overview: The Parlement & Citoyens platform was designed and developed by SmartGov, a four-person non-profit organization based in Paris. The innovative platform allows citizens to contribute their analysis and ideas to parliamentarians as they develop legislation. After a parliamentarian publishes a short video and text description outlining a problem they have observed in society and the solutions they think can be codified in a law, citizens upload their ideas about the possible causes of the problem. Citizens then have the opportunity to upload their own ideas and vote for those that most effectively characterize the problem and contribute to a solution. SmartGov synthesizes the results and hosts a public debate between the MP and active participants in the online discussion. The parliamentarian proposes a bill in parliament based on the results.
Background:
SmartGov is a member of Démocratie Ouverte (Open Democracy), a francophone group devoted to the area of open government. The project took a year to develop prior to its launch in February 2013, which was done in collaboration with six elected representatives from six different political parties. The platform was developed by volunteers and without funding. Its main objectives are to allow citizens to participate directly in the legislative process, enable collective intelligence to make more efficient and responsible laws and improve the transparency of the legislative process.
Implementation:
Parlement & Citoyens identifies their seven-step methodology as:
1. A representative (senator or MP) can use the platform to publish a “subject” dedicated to becoming a bill. The first step is to present this subject with a video and a detailed online description.
2. Once the subject is published, citizens, as well as NGOs, companies and other interested parties, are invited to participate. Comments and color vote allow participants to give feedback to the representative. Anyone can also make new proposals and give ideas to build a better bill.
3. Crowdsourcing enables data and sources to be collected to document the subject.
4. The Parlement & Citoyens team analyzes all contributions and publishes a detailed overview.
5. A filmed debate is organized with the representative and selected participants.
6. After all this collaborative process, the representative writes the bill and publishes it on the platform with a video to explain their choices.
7. The last step enables citizens to support the co-designed bill on social networks and to their own representatives.
As an example, in February 2013, Bruno Le Maire, the National Assembly representative of the 1st district of Eure, collaborated with Parlement & Citoyens to produce a short video on the current lack of citizen confidence in parliament. In the video, Le Maire states that citizens do not feel well-represented in the National Assembly or Senate because their representatives do not understand their problems and do not present good solutions to the country’s problems or to citizen’s everyday problems. Le Maire identifies this as an important problem because a healthy democracy cannot exist without trust between citizens and their representatives.
To follow up on the causes and solutions to the problem Le Maire presented in the video, Parlement & Citoyens introduced an online platform for citizens to debate these ideas further. The debate resulted in over 2500 comments, which Parlement & Citoyens then synthesized.
Solutions to the Problem according to Bruno Le Maire
Source: Parlement&Citoyens, Les solutions au problème selon Bruno Le Maire
On July 12, 2013, Parlement & Citoyens hosted a live debate online between Bruno Le Maire and six Parlement & Citoyens participants. Of the six Parlement & Citoyens participants, one participant was randomly selected among contributors using the online service Randompicker, three participants were selected on the basis of the number of “Likes” harvested by their contributions and two other contributors were selected by Parlement & Citoyens to balance and diversify the panel of participants in the debate.
Bruno Le Maire is soon expected to submit a bill to address the problem of the lack of citizen confidence in parliament. Once the draft law has been submitted, the bill will be published on the Parlement & Citoyens platform. It will be accompanied by a video of Le Maire explaining his reasoning, the good ideas he obtained through the debate and the contributions that inspired him.
Once the draft law is tabled by the French parliament, Parlement & Citoyens will monitor the bill’s progress and provide updates on the platform. Citizens can demonstrate support for the bill through social media or by contacting their MP directly.
In addition to Le Maire, another MP and a senator have also uploaded videos to the platform. MP Dominique Raimbourg’s video identifies the problem of justice system’s reliance on prison, while Senator Joël Labbé asks whether or not to ban the non-agricultural use of pesticides. The commenting period for both these issues has ended, and Parlement & Citoyens is in the process of developing the synthesis for each.
Achievements:
Having six MPs/senators from six different political parties involved in the Beta test.
Beginning three processes, each with the participation of a different MP/senator, to co-write three distinct bills.
Receiving, in the three initial consultations, a total of 10,000 contributions made by 1,500 participants.
Critical Issues:
The main issue Parlement & Citoyens team has faced is creating a sustainable business model. In France, there are no foundations or public programs dedicated to open government issues that could help fund or develop the Parlement & Citoyens experiment. Parlement & Citoyens is run entirely by volunteers, and the project will be difficult to sustain without a source of funding.
While convincing MPs or senators to participate has not been a major challenge, they require support from the Parlement & Citoyens team. Parlement & Citoyens has had to provide MPs and senators with methodological support to encourage the participating MPs and senators to focus first on the analysis of the problem, rather than focusing directly on the solutions.
Parlement & Citoyens is currently in the process of developing a better way to analyze the large number of contributions they receive through the platform. They may have to redesign the first step of their methodology to provide a better visual representation of the arguments for or against each proposed cause or solution.
The Parlement & Citoyens team still needs to focus on developing a community of active members on the platform to help with the day-to-day operations of the site (analyzing, communicating, moderating, etc.).
Contacts: Co-founders, Armel Le Coz, [email protected]; Cyril Lage, [email protected]; Claire de Chessé, [email protected]; Bastien Jaillot: [email protected]
Additional Resources: https://www.parlement-et-citoyens.fr/ils-parlent-de-nous
This post is part six in a series of case studies on tools PMOs have used that can be replicated or serve as models for organizations in different contexts. To see all of the case studies, click here. To contribute a case study on a project that your organization has created, please fill out the template and email Dustin Palmer at [email protected] with any questions.
