Living Lab #3: Aligning Citizen and Government Expectations for Digital Democracy
How can digitalisation make democratic participation more meaningful, inclusive and trustworthy?
The latest INNOVADE Living Lab #3, Matching Citizen and Government Expectations of Digital Democracy, brought together 30 participants from civil society, government, research and technology organisations across Europe to explore this question.
The discussions highlighted a clear gap between having digital participation tools and creating meaningful democratic engagement. Citizens want to see what happens to their contributions, while public institutions need integrated, secure and user-centred systems that make participation easier to manage.
A key outcome of the Living Lab was the idea of moving from one-way participation towards a “two-loop” model: citizens should not only submit ideas and feedback, but also receive clear updates, decisions and explanations from government. Participants also emphasised the importance of digital and civic education, multilingual accessibility, privacy, hybrid online/offline participation, community-building and transparent feedback mechanisms.
The report concludes that successful digital democracy is not simply about building another app. It is about creating transparent, traceable and accountable processes in which citizens can understand how their input contributes to decisions.
These findings will help guide the next stages of the INNOVADE project, including the development of concrete functionalities and implementation choices in Living Lab #4.
📄 Want to explore the findings in more detail? Read the full Living Lab #3 Final Report: