Design Principles for Online Platforms Fostering Deliberative Political Discourse

Vebrova, Michaela; Petrosyan, Lusine; Volkmer, Lucas Alexander; Distel, Bettina

Zusammenfassung

The design choices behind online participatory platforms, intended to facilitate interaction between citizens and government representatives, frequently undermine the potential for genuine democratic deliberation. This article presents a set of six success criteria for publicly owned online participatory platforms designed to facilitate the process of deliberation: political privacy, discursive diversity, reciprocity, reflexivity, availability of information, and perceived impact. In addition, 12 design principles that support these success criteria are formulated, whose use might increase the effective implementation and take-up of publicly owned online participatory platforms fostering democratic deliberation.