This book provides a comprehensive examination of how digital platforms shape deliberative processes and democratic engagement, combining theoretical insights with empirical evidence.
It draws on typologies, conceptual models, case studies, comparative analyses, and ethical reflections to assess how digital tools can support—or undermine—the legitimacy of deliberative procedures and wider democratic participation. This book focuses on initiatives by public institutions to involve citizens in areas such as climate governance, youth engagement, public service media, party politics, and AI-mediated dialogue. Using the input-throughput-output legitimacy framework, it systematically explores how digital platforms influence who participates, how they engage, and how these processes connect to the broader public and contribute to policy outcomes. In doing so, this book equips readers to critically navigate the evolving landscape of participatory and deliberative practices amid rapid digital transformation.
This book is essential reading for scholars, students, and practitioners interested in the use of digital technologies for participatory and deliberative purposes, and more broadly in political communication, democratic innovation, media studies, party politics, and the social sciences.
Chapter 1 and Chapter 4 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA) 4.0 International license.
1. Introduction: Digital Platforms as a New Frontier for Deliberative Democracy Part 1: Understanding the Platformization of Politics and (Deliberative) Democracy 2. Building a Typology of Digital Platforms’ Political Functions 3. An Emerging Conceptual Model Comparing the Deliberative Nature of Online Deliberation Platforms Part 2: Enhancing Deliberative Processes through Digital Platforms 4. Harnessing Digital Tools for Democratic Deliberation: Comparative Insights from 11 European Climate Assemblies 5. Combining Online and Offline Participatory Processes for Local Policy Making: An Analysis of Three Cases in the Netherlands 6. At the Crossroads of Multilingual and Digital Deliberative Democracy: Perceived Effectiveness of Multilingual DMPs Across In-person and Online Settings 7. Public Support for Online Citizens’ Assemblies: A Tale of the Digital Divide? Part 3: Leveraging Deliberative Processes through Artificial Intelligence 8. Making Online Participation More Intelligent: Considerations on How Artificial Intelligence Can Support Public Online Participatory Processes 9. Artificial Intelligence in Deliberative Democracy: Empirical Insights on the Legitimacy of AI-Supported Deliberation Platforms Part 4: Expanding Horizons 10. The Deliberative Potential of E-petition Systems: A Cross-Country Overview 11. Audience Councils (ACs) and their Role in Public Service Media (PSM): Insights from Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom 12. Children’s Rights and Potential in Online Deliberation 13. Party Elites and Digital Participation in Hungary: Forced to Ride the Wave 14. Conclusion: How Digital Democratic Reforms Can Forestall Deliberative Democracy's Decline and Fuel Its Renewal
Emilien Paulis is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg. Raphaël Kies is a research scientist at the University of Luxembourg and founder of the Luxembourg Platform for Participatory Democracy (pldp.lu), Luxembourg. Alina Östling is a senior researcher at Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), Sweden.
