CONSUL calls itself the “most complete citizen participation tool for an open, transparent and democratic government”. Initially launched by the Madrid city council, the platform benefits from an open-source code that is free to use for governments, cities, or municipalities. CONSUL enables citizens to voice their concerns and to take part in local developments. But how does CONSUL work? And how are transparency and participation reached?
Working as an online platform, CONSUL offers a space where every citizen can start a public debate, make proposals for city development, or take part in polls to enhance their most important issues. In that way, people can participate in decision-making, for example, regarding budget spending or in collaborative legislation by commenting on public legislative texts. The interface is available for different devices including smartphones. CONSUL is an open software platform that is free of charge and can be used in customisable and secure setups protecting privacy. CONSUL was honoured with the United Nations Public Service Award and is already applied by 90 millions of citizens and by 120 organisation around the world in over 23 countries.
So, how does it look like in practice? In Würzburg, Germany, the idea of applying CONSUL for citizen participation came from the commitment to open dialogue between civil society and politicians. One of the initial projects that asked people how to shape one of the city’s green areas raised the attention of around 2,500 supporters as well as around 100 participants online and in-person. Würzburg uses digital media for turning citizens’ ideas into actual improvements, enhancing engagement and the tangibility of democracy. The city states that one of the success factors is the blending of analogue and digital elements. The project mentioned above, for example, made use of public surveys and workshops for the initial idea-collection, gathering proposals online, as well as physical visits and online design presentations in the final stage. Effective and varied communication channels and the use of simple language were important to inclusive dialogue with citizens. In 2022, Würzburg hosted the ConsulCon, the first international CONSUL Democracy Conference where experts and representatives came together.
Another example comes from the city of Groningen in Nothern Netherlands: In 2017, a cooperative neighbourhood council was founded to help institutionalise citizen participation in politics. The initiative was a success and the Groningen municipality decided to introduce a larger-scale initiative, including digital media. The online platform Stem van Groningen (Dutch for the ‘Voice of Groningen’) was launched in October 2019 to give citizens more power in decision-making. The first project was about improving one of Groningen’s neighbourhoods for which people could allocate 25,000 Euros: Thousands of ideas were submitted and approaches were discussed and voted on. Similar to the Würzburg example, the project was conducted partly online on the CONSUL-based platform, and partly in-person through physical information meetings. Another key factor of success, according to the project coordinator in Groningen, is that the goals and structure of the citizen engagement processes must be clear from the beginning on.
As CONSUL was implemented by numerous cities and municipalities over the past years, you can read more about their use cases as well as about the platform itself on the CONSUL website.
(FG)
Literature:
Theocharis, Yannis; Deth, Jan W. van (2017). Political Participation in a Changing World: Conceptual and Empirical Challenges in the Study of Citizen Engagement. Abingdon: Routledge.
Pina, Vicente; Torres, Lourdes; Royo, Sonia; Garcia-Rayado, Jaime. (2022). “Decide Madrid: A Spanish Best Practice on E-Participation.” edited by Tina Randma-Liiv; Veiko Lember, 152-165. Engaging Citizens in Policy Making: e-Participation Practices in Europe. Cheltenham: Edgar Elgar. https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollbook-oa/edcoll/9781800374355/9781800374355.xml (open access)
