Citizen participation provides governments with a powerful tool to design and implement better and more effective and responsive policies while strengthening public trust. Findings from the 2023 OECD Trust Survey underscore the importance of political agency, which combines the confidence of being able to participate in politics and the confidence of one’s voice being heard, as the strongest driver of citizens’ trust in government. However, challenges to achieving meaningful and impactful participation in policymaking persist, including its disconnection from decision-making, limited resources and capabilities, and poorly designed or inaccessible processes. For decades, governments have leveraged digital technologies such as citizen participation platforms and other civic tech tools to address these challenges and expand the reach of participation processes. More recently, governments have also started experimenting with AI and other emerging technologies such as blockchain, and virtual and augmented reality. This report provides an in-depth analysis of the opportunities and challenges related to the use of AI tools to support and enhance citizen participation processes.
This report is a deliverable of a collaboration between the OECD and the Bertelsmann Stiftung. It leverages extensive OECD and Bertelsmann Stiftung work on innovative citizen participation and its relation to public trust, civic tech, digital government, and public sector innovation. In particular, it builds on previous OECD publications including the results of the 2023 OECD Trust Survey, OECD Guidelines for Citizen Participation Processes, Tackling civic participation challenges with emerging technologies, Exploring New Frontiers in Citizen Participation in the Policy Cycle, Governing with Artificial Intelligence: The State of Play and Way Forward in Core Government Functions, as well as on Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Five ideas for renewing democratic participation, Under Construction: Citizen Participation in the European Union, and Public AI White Paper.
The report contributes to the global discussion on democracy in the digital age and on the adoption of AI in government, in particular to the OECD Reinforcing Democracy Initiative and its Action Plan on Transforming Public Governance for Digital Democracy.