Glossary

Participatory System

Participatory System, also known as Multichannel participation, is defined as institutions that integrate messages and participatory spaces targeted to different segments of the population in a system specifically designed to increase and deepen citizen participation in the political decision making process.

Although the most common participatory systems are described as hybrid consultations processes integrating online and offline venues of discussion targeted to different type of participants, EMPATIA’s definition does not reduce it to hybrid innovations that combine online and offline media. On one hand, face-to-face innovations can be multichannel. On the other hand, hybrid democratic innovations can be single channel and hybridization does not automatically create a new channel.

Phase

We use the term phase in its general meaning; a democratic innovation phase is a set of specific actions aimed at achieving a specific goal in a specific amount of time. Each Democratic Innovation is organized in a sequence of phases composed by actions, not necessarily corresponding with a single and specific channel of engagement. For example, most deliberative mini-publics involve first a learn-ing phase, then a consultation phase and then a deliberation phase (Fishkin & Luskin, 2005). These three phases are significantly different in design, and allow participants to perform different set of actions, but do not target different publics; hence, they are not different channels of engagement.

Cycle

A cycle is a set of phases that repeats itself. For example, PB processes employ a yearly cycle that combines phases that last various months. PBs usually integrate four macro-phases: an initial ideation phase, in which participants propose potential public projects; a filtering phase, where projects are developed at the level of definition necessary to make a decision through active involvement of the technical body of the entity engaged in PB; a project selection phase, in which participants affect the selection of projects that will enter the budget; a monitoring phase, in which participants gather information on the implementation of projects (Wampler, 2015; Baiocchi, 2005; Avritzer & Navarro, 2003; Abers, 2000; Fedozzi, 2000). However, in most PBs these phases are designed for the same public and thus they do not constitute separate channels of engagement.

Democratic Innovation

Democratic Innovations is generally defined as institutions specifically designed to increase and deepen citizen participation in the political decision-making process (Smith, 2009). Some democratic innovations are very simple and involve a single public in a set of tasks — a single channel of engagement. Other democratic innovations are more complex and can be better understood as a system that integrates multiple channels of engagement.

Channel

A channel of engagement is a combination of tools, messages and participatory processes designed to encourage a specific behaviour in a target public.

Actions

Our definition offers also the tool to distinguish between channels and actions – actions that a user can perform within a participatory process. Some typical actions in face-to-face participatory processes include listening, talking, reading, mobilizing, ranking, voting and monitoring. Similarly, typical actions in collaborative platforms are for example generating, editing, versioning, commenting, mobilizing and ranking ideas.

Second Cycle

Coming soon.

Gamification

Coming soon.