ICTlogy

Abstract:

We see the debate about how to scale deliberation through a political lens, where our goals are focused on how we can enable a citizenry that is resilient to the forces of autocracy – one that feels and is more powerful and connected, where people feel heard and empathise with others, where citizens have stronger interpersonal and societal trust, and where public decisions have greater legitimacy and better alignment with collective values. Against this backdrop, we ask:

What does scaling democratic deliberation mean, why is it valuable, and what is the role of AI in enabling it?

In this paper, we make two core contributions to the field:

1. We offer an expanded definition of scale by breaking down the concept across five dimensions: scaling out (increasing deliberator numbers), scaling up (higher governance levels), scaling across (increasing number of processes), scaling deep (increasing impact), and scaling in (improving deliberative quality).
2. We propose that scaling democratic deliberation is not a technological challenge alone, but one that requires a diverse repertoire of technological applications to be developed and fruitfully combined with strengthened civic infrastructure.