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Tackling Challenges Together


Working together to solve problems need not be a fantasy

The biggest challenges of our time


One would be forgiven for thinking in these politically belligerent times that it is rather optimistic to be talking about how people can come together from across the many perceived divides to discuss some of the biggest challenges of our time and figure out how to tackle them.

The UK’s 650 MPs are certainly not inspiring us, (three rejected EU Brexit deals and still no way through), and neither is the media.

But our paper, Tackling Challenges Together,’ produced in partnership between CPI and the new and very timely organisation, Engage Britain, is a collection of worldwide case studies and briefings showcasing some of the most innovative ways people, policy and technology worked together and showed us it can be done.

Gone are the days when we sit back and wait for traditional power structures, processes and institutions to tell us what to do, when to discuss the pressing needs of our communities and countries and hope we get an invitation. Technology entrepreneurs and policy activists inside and outside of government are instead figuring out how digital platforms can be a force for better, more informed, larger in scale conversations, as opposed to the ones we fear, loathe and find ourselves craving and shouting at in equal measure.

Download the report

Assessing citizen engagement in action – and the digital divide


In this report, we pulled together nine of the best examples of citizen conversations and deliberations all benefiting from advances in technology, it only reinforced how far the usual public sector dialogue with citizens still needs to go.

Conversations derived from governments are still largely one-way, often confined to narrowly worded consultations and limited in interaction.

‘Digital by default’ has definitely changed the way governments interact with citizens for transactional services but it still means a service is given to you, not one you can shape and discuss.  Many cannot benefit from it at all. Latest figures show over 11 million adults in the UK are digitally excluded. 

The best examples of citizen engagement


Though all this is new territory, we can see that a combination of offline and online conversations matter especially for very complex issues, where discussions need to go deeper or deeply divide parts of the population. 

The cases we have chosen to illustrate and assess were selected because together they capture some of the most promising and varied examples of conversations that go beyond the usual participants and the usual methods.

Alleviating the “legitimacy crisis”, not eliminating government


Within this blossoming field of innovation, levels of success vary widely in terms of the scale of engagement, sustainability and impact.

We have assessed cases that have engaged tens of thousands of citizens (Better Reykjavik), brought opposing sides together (vTaiwan and U.S Corporate Tax Reform), and even helped resolve a democratic crisis with a  lasting impact on government policy (Estonia Citizens’ Assembly and Democracy Seoul).

Equally, we encountered frustrations and unrealised potential, low levels of participation (as could be argued was the case in the public engagement process for the New Zealand 2018 Census), and governments stalling on or rejecting the people’s recommendations (see Estonia and vTaiwan). 

We can see that these democratic innovations are still negotiating their relationship within the established political system and are grappling with age-old institutional and cultural challenges of political engagement, such as a lack of trust.

Explore the case studies

The five legitimacy behaviors


CPI’s five ‘legitimacy behaviours’ can provide a helpful lens through which to check how well conversations are going with people. 

The behaviours relate closely to the quality of citizen engagement and today are expected as a minimum requirement from our governments and all those who work in them. They include authenticity, scrutiny, valuing voices, co-creating visions and empathy, and those qualities were voiced especially loudly by those who have thus far felt unheard or squeezed out of conversations. 

These technological innovations offer a real and sustained chance to help governments respond to citizens’ expectations in the day-to-day world of policymaking but will require follow-through to feel authentic, to be transparent and to have responsive feedback loops to show all voices matter. 

An alternative way for governments to think about working with people


These examples do not represent, therefore, an alternative to governments or the single answer but do offer an alternative way for governments to think about working with people. All of our examples can complement and enhance existing government policy and decision-making processes and, indeed, are already doing so. 

At this stage, it is still uncertain how we should evaluate the democratic significance of scale, what levels of participation one can reasonably expect on a given topic of debate, and what level of engagement warrants government action. These are just some of the many areas worthy of further study but certainly provide some welcome positive news this year, especially when it comes to working together to solve urgent problems that are not going away.

Join the conversation

We partnered with Engage Britain, to look at some of the most promising examples of technology helping citizens engage over the big issues impacting the world.

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