Deliberative Tech & Democracy
What does deliberative technology mean?
With an emphasis on citizen participation and collective intelligence, deliberative technology offers digital tools to support public discussion on policy issues and challenges. The changing political landscape, both in the U.S. and globally, makes this burgeoning field timely, pertinent, and critical for the flourishing of democracy.
Yet despite nearly 200 deliberative technology platforms available to support civic engagement, government and civil society uptake is low. How so?
In part this may be due to expertise needed for success, including 1) guidance for designing and facilitating deliberative processes, and 2) navigating how to choose the right platform for particular processes.
To fill this gap, the PTAP Lab coordinates the Council on Tech and Social Cohesion’s Deliberative Tech Hub involving nearly 100 peacebuilding experts and practitioners working with deliberative technologies. Their assignment? To identify best practices and considerations for effective deliberative public processes related to process design and tool sequencing choices so that organizations – without the same expertise – don’t have to make uninformed decisions.
As part of this work, the PTAP Lab is teaming with the Afghanistan Program on Peace and Development (AfPAD) to explore the potential of using new platforms designed for “listening at scale” to hear the voices and ideas of Afghans now spread across the globe. The project aims to develop a methodology for ongoing consultation with and among people from Afghanistan.
In another collaboration with the Alliance for Middle East Peace and Remesh, the PTAP Lab is learning how a deliberative technology platform, Remesh, can find common ground between Israelis and Palestinians. The outcome of this research project will be a website, wiki database, and AI assistant to navigate and design deliberative public processes, and to choose and use relevant technology platforms.
Recent Events
Defending Democracy with Deliberative Technologies Symposium: The PTAP Lab organized and facilitated an event at the Keough School of Global Affairs’ Washington, DC office on March 14, 2024, with a keynote address by Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa.
Deliberative Technologies in Polarized Contexts: The PTAP Lab hosted a four-day workshop at the University of Notre Dame, co-sponsored with the Tokyo-based Toda Peace Institute. The workshop brought together 47 practitioners from tech start-ups and frontline peacebuilding practitioners to learn and experiment with using deliberative tech in highly polarized contexts.
Related Publications
Andrew Konya, Luke Thorburn, Wasim Almasri, Oded Adomi Leshem, Ariel D. Procaccia, Lisa Schirch, Michiel A. Bakker. Using Collective Dialogues and AI to Find Common Ground Between Israeli and Palestinian Peacebuilders. ArXiv. 2 March 2025.
Beth Goldberg, Lisa Schirch, et al. "AI and the Future of Digital Public Squares." ArXiv. 13 December 2024.
Lisa Schirch. Defending Democracy with Deliberative Technologies. Keough School Policy Brief Series. Notre Dame, IN: Keough School of Global Affairs, 2024.
Lisa Schirch. Deliberative Technology: Designing AI and Computational Democracy for Peacebuilding in Highly-Polarized Contexts. Tokyo: Toda Peace Institute, October 2024.
Andrew Konya, Aviv Ovadya, Lisa Schirch, Colin Irwin. "Democratic Policy Development Using Collective Dialogues and AI." ArXiv. November 3, 2023.