e-Consultation between elections

[Michael Hardner]

Joseph Peters appears on TVO's The Agenda this week, discussing the Institute for Research on Public Policy's publication of E-Consultation - Enabling Democracy Between Elections

Look for the "Joseph Peters" link on this page:

TVO - The Agenda

Mr. Peters focuses on how social networks can enhance government's process of consultation with its citizens.

A choice quote:

When you consider the diversity of perspective that can help inform a decision, and you can get [that] through social networks then you're going to have more robust and sound decisions that are made, instead of these isolated, paternalistic, "we know best" decisions that are sometimes made.

Much of said consultation sounds faddish, and the interviewer takes him to task on that. The most well-known example of e-consulting to Canadians so far would be Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's whiplash reaction to a 100,000 strong facebook group opposed to pending legislation on young drivers.

But there is greater potential for actual discussion and deliberation out there, as evidenced by some of the case studies in the IRPP publication. We don't know, and can't know what form that potential will take.

Joseph Peters is a partner and a founder of Ascentum,

the leading public involvement firm in Canada. He

believes in a vision of the “unsurvey” — when informed

participation replaces public opinion polling. Joseph has

led initiatives with the House of Commons, the Senate,

the federal government and the third sector. He assists

elected officials, government, business and NGOs in

using technology to engage stakeholders, to develop

sustainable decisions in complex challenges. Joseph

holds an MBA from the University of Ottawa and was a

2007 recipient of the Ottawa Top 40 under 40 award.

[Michael Hardner]

The linked PDF report describes some examples of eConsultation, which is defined as:

the use of information

and communications technologies (ICTs) to involve

the public (citizens and/or stakeholders) through different

forms of interaction with our democratic institutions,

with the intention to elicit inputs that

contribute to more sustainable or robust decisionmaking.

published by the IRPP is encouraging, and does provide some good examples - although more detail on what web tools were exactly used would have been appreciated.

Nonetheless, the report does a good job of cheering on eConsultation as a means of engaging the public in decision-making with Democracy 2.0. I would consider this a companion piece to the more detailed "Its More Than Talk" published by the Public Policy Forum last year.

What does jump out from between the lines of the report, though, are disenchanting descriptions of government operations that have seized up and can only move at a painfully slow pace. The Conservative government hasnt seemed to find a way to improve things, which may in fact be getting worse if the departments involved are hunkering down in fear of restructuring.

In fact, this separate problem is very much related to Democracy 2.0 in my mind - and the fact that the movement seems to see information as something that government needs to hand down to us. In fact, we need to give government information - to make clear that we expect them to achieve the goals that they themselves set when they are campaigning for our votes.

That aspect of those reports warrants a separate thread.

[Riverwind]

It is not clear to me why such consultations would be more meaningful than polls. Especially since the government sets the questions and as the power to word them in ways that elicit the desired response.

[Michael Hardner]

It is not clear to me why such consultations would be more meaningful than polls. Especially since the government sets the questions and as the power to word them in ways that elicit the desired response.

My brother was called by a polling company recently, and they gave him a multiple choice question about what he would do to fix the economy.

I'm not sure if your second sentence was supposed to be wry, but it sure as hell was.

[tango]

E-consultation does not need to replace

traditional face-to-face public involvement; it can

serve as a convenient and broad-based complement

to an event like a round table or town hall meeting.

Organizations will not be able to avoid the fact that

future generations will prefer, if not demand, the

option to participate on-line. If this reality is not considered,

Williams’s quiet discontent and “withdrawal

of interest” could worsen beyond our current democratic

apathy (1958) .

Makes sense to me.

Unfortunately, politically we are limited by the vision of the party paying for the e-consultation, so it still doesn't help with input at the political level, but at the bureaucratic level it could help.

[Riverwind]

My brother was called by a polling company recently, and they gave him a multiple choice question about what he would do to fix the economy.

For every push poll slanted one way there is another slanted the other way. We can probably devine the truth as somewhere between the extremes.

Government referendum would be polls where no one could commission a poll to see how the responses change if the wording is changed.