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EUROPEAN STUDENTS’ FORUM
HOW TO SUPPORT YOUTH
PARTICIPATION: E-TOOLS FOR
DEMOCRACY
Andrea Ferrara – AEGEE-Europe
Nils Altland – Liquid Democracy e. V.
Kyiv – 15th October 2015

HOW TO SUPPORT YOUTH
PARTICIPATION: E-TOOLS FOR
DEMOCRACY
I. Democracy and participation in Europe
II. New ways of participation
III.E-tools to support participation
IV.What’s new in AEGEE?
AEGEE-EUROPE / EUROPEAN STUDENTS' FORUM

WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?
∆ήµος + κράτος
“Rule of the people”
Source: https://goo.gl/3Mf3t2

I. DEMOCRACY AND PARTICIPATION IN
EUROPE
Political participation broadly is about taking
actions to bring change in society.
It can take different forms:
Participation in representative democracy and
political parties;
Participation in participatory structures, such as
youth organizations or issue-based NGOs or
volunteering;
Participation in debate on community issues.

Participation in representative democracy
and political parties
Crisis of representative democracy
EUROPE

Voters turnout in European Parliament elections¹
1 Source: Results of the European elections
European parliament website http://www.europarl.europa.eu/elections2014-results/en/turnout.html
EUROPE

II. NEW WAYS OF PARTICIPATION
Despite (or because) the crisis of the
representative democracy, citizens found more
and new (and/or old) ways of participating and
acting to change society.
Civil society;
Protest / demonstration / riot;
Participation in campaign.

“aggregate of non-governmental organizations
and institutions that manifest interests and will
of citizens”
Organizations in a society which are
independent of the government(s)

Organizations are working to make a change in
a specific sector or for a certain group of people
e.g.
- Direct actions
- Lobbying
- Research

Other examples…

Action by a mass group or collection of groups
of people in favor of a political or other cause
- Marches
- Rallies
- Picketing
- Sit-ins

# Establishment with less ability to
generate consensus than ever
# Politicians elite who just care
about keeping privileges and other interests
# New movements affirming that political
parties and movements are tools, not ends in
themselves

# not endorsed by any large
political party, trade union or
traditional political organization
# Organized by ad-hoc platforms

“The most democratizing aspect of the
internet is the ability of the people to
organize and communicate in groups”
Steven Clift in “Democracy is online”, 1998

Organized effort aimed to influence the decision
making process within a specific group.
The campaign can be spontaneous or organized.

Connective action ≠ Collective action
# Communication becomes a prominent part
of organizational structure
# Digital media enable people to share and
diffuse resources across social networks
without formal commitment to
organizations
Organizations loose the central role in resource
mobilization, a central feature to mobilization
processes in the past

E-tools are used to collect and discuss citizens’
views with the aim to better represent their
interests and need.
E-Participation ≠ informing/consulting
Engagement in the decision making process
Empowerment the participation in the
democratic governance
III. E-TOOLS TO SUPPORT PARTICIPATION

Use of social media to support participation:
• Twitter, FB and Instant messaging for
information dissemination, sharing initiatives;
• Google Hangout and Skype for small
meetings, discussions, consultations;
• Blogs for soliciting input;
• YouTube to promote initiatives;
• On-line surveys, newsletters, web forums etc.

Innovative use of applications:
• Emergency broadcasting texting;
• Social media pages to collect citizens’ input on
services and to report issues to government;
• Apps to vote on local initiatives and to collect
input on proposed policy change.

Governments’ commitment to promote
transparency, empower citizens, fight
corruption, and harness new technologies to
strengthen governance.

e-Democracy and e-Participation
e-Campaigning, e-Voting, Consultation Platforms
e-Government
Open-data, e-Government services
Security and Privacy
Identity management, digital rights, cyber attacks,
cyber crimes (NSA, “safe-harbour” etc.)
Social, legal and ethical issues
Surveillance Technologies and Legal Implications,
digital divide, freedom of expression and of
information (…)

23
Some good reasons not to use commercial social media…

24
• You’re not the customer, you’re the
product!
• Keep control of your personal data!
• Mind the Snowden leaks…

IV. WHAT’S NEW IN AEGEE?
Vision
AEGEE strives for a democratic, diverse and borderless
Europe, which is socially, economically and politically
integrated, and values the participation of young people in
its construction and development.
Youth participation in democratic process¹
AEGEE promotes and supports the involvement and
engagement of young people in their communities all
around Europe.
Active political participation of all citizens, and especially of
all young people, is the basis for a well functioning European
society.
1 Source: http://www.aegee.org/position-paper-in-youth-participation-in-democratic-processes/

Project aimed to get more young people involved in
political decision-making and increase youth trust in
European political institutions.
develop an open and easy-to-use online participation
platform along with different mobile tools and apps for
smartphones and tablets.

Challenge 6
Europe in a changing world
Inclusive, innovative and reflective
societies
Societal and political engagement of young people
and their perspectives on Europe
EUth is funded by the European
Union under the research
programme Horizon 2020

The European Commission funded this project
with 2.5 million € (N.B. AEGEE is getting a very
little part of this budget!)

Despite (or because…) of this distrust,
young people are more active in
associations than in political parties²
¹Standard Eurobarometer 77 Spring 2012
Decreasing trust of young people
towards EU and institutions in general¹
The EC put in place the EU youth strategy aimed:
- To provide opportunities for young people
- To encourage young people to actively
participate in society
² Eurobarometer Flash European Youth: participation in democratic life’ 2013 (n°375)
Request to develop a tool to facilitate the participation and the
engagement to enable public authorities and organizations to open their
decision-making processes.

Voters turnout in European Parliament elections¹
1 Source: Results of the European elections
European parliament website http://www.europarl.europa.eu/elections2014-results/en/turnout.html

TOOLS IN AEGEE FOR E-PARTICIPATION
MAILING LIST…

1 - The project addresses one of the main priorities of AEGEE: the
participation of young people.
The software that will be produced by the consortium will facilitate the
involvement of young people in taking decisions.
2 – It is a great chance for AEGEE to improve the communication
within our huge network.
The EUth software can become the main consultation and participation
tool.
WHY IS AEGEE IN EUTH?

YPART ‘LIQUID
DEMOCRACY’
• Collective Text-Writing
• Agenda-Setting
• Proposal and
Amendment-Voting
FLASHPOLL
‘FLASHMOB VOTING’
• On-Spot Voting
• Geographical
Limitation
• instantaneous sets of
public opinion
ACTIVITIES

Alfstore

WHAT IS LIQUID
DEMOCRACY ?
a set of democratic principles, which are
supported by/realised with the help of
digital media technology and software
a means to digitally structure democratic
discourses in an open and accessible way,
driven by its users/citizens
time, place and intensity independent
a flexible (,liquid’) combination of direct and
representative democracy

How to support youth participation e-tools for democracy - Final version

Levels & implementation
of Liquid Democracy
theoretical
concept
software solution
use cases
development of
new software
features
1
2
3

Our tool: the free and open source software
Adhocracy
Adhocracy
github.com/liqd/adhocracy/

Currently realized processes and use cases
• Collecting Ideas
• Collaboratively drafting texts
• Land-use planning

Liquid
Democracy
Collective
Text-Writing
Geographica
l Target
On-Spot
Voting
Complex
Consultation
Processes
EUth
One App
Online
Agenda-
Setting

Shared
decision
making
process
Preparing
proposals
Propose
statute’s
changes
To vote on
delegates
and CD
Consultation
of members
One App
Prepare the
Agenda of
meetings
For AEGEE

AMBITIONS
Pilot the app with
1800 students in
AEGEE
Increase
youth e-
participation
Implement
EUth tool as
the main
consultation
and decision-
making tool
Equip students
with e-participation
skills
Increase
internal
discussion and
participation
Improving
internal and
external
democracy
processes

METHODOLOGY
Publishing and Promotion of Results
Testing at Agora
Online-Voting, Online-Discussion
Training and Preparation in NWMs
Voting and E-Participation Simulation
Testing in Locals
3 locals with various sizes
Training of Trainers
Community Managers

TIMELINE
Autumn
2015
Preparation
of Pilot
Winter 2016
Pilot EUth in
3 locals
February
2016
European
Planning
Meeting
Leiden
May 2016
Pilot at
Spring
Agora
Bergamo
Summer
2016
Best-
Practice
Guide

PREPARATION OF THE PILOT
To inform the local members of AEGEE-Europe of the involvement
of the association in the project EUth, the members of the comité
directeur and the project manager of the project EUth will deliver
presentations during the Network Meetings. Below the calendar:
• 24 – 27 September - Firenze
• 29 Oct – 01 Nov –Athina
• 05 – 08 Nov –Tartu
• 05 – 08 Nov –Tbilisi
• 12 – 15 Nov –Cluj-Napoca
• 13 – 15 Nov – Valencia
• 19 – 22 Nov – Berlin
• 20 – 23 Nov – Delft
• 26 – 29 Nov – Kraków
• 26 – 29 Nov – Sofia

PILOT
• Test with 3 locals
• EPM, Leiden
• AGORA, Bergamo

HOW TO GET INVOLVED?
Join Online
Consultation
for Methods
Apply to be
one of 3
testing locals
Join ITC
Become
Community
Manager

WWW.EUTH.NET
Andrea Ferrara
andrea.ferrara@aegee.org
Nils Altland
nils.altland@liqd.de

EUROPEAN STUDENTS’ FORUM
THANK YOU FOR
YOUR
ATTENTION!

�ݺ�ߣ

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