The Citizens’ initiative as a

method of grassroots participation

Experiences from Slovenia

Blaž Palir Government Communication Office

Republic of Slovenia

Participation

Consultations

5.000 citizens can put forward a legislation proposal to

the Slovenian parliament

Petitions

Direct Communication with citizens

Answering questions

Receiving and responding to suggestions

What is missing?

Suggestions and responses should be public

Public scrutiny over the government answers

Lower number of recurring suggestions

Government cares

Suggestions should be collective

Citizens should choose the most relevant suggestions

Getting the project approved

Goal: adoption of a regulation requiring ministries and

government offices to prepare the answers in 20 days

after receiving the initiative

Good practice - Estonia TID+

Registered users create suggestions

Checked by moderator before being published

Debate (14 days)

Amendments possible

Voting (7 days 14 days)

Answers published online (30 days)

Open source TID+

Based upon years of practical experience and academic

research

No development – saving time and money

No licenses

Fears

citizens will not take time to register Facebook Connect (Open Graph)

citizens will not participate, if they cannot remain anonymous only need a valid e-mail

inappropriate comments checked and deleted if necessary

the interest of people will be so small, that the suggestions will be adopted with just few votes voting quorum

users will lose interest weekly newsletter

government ministries and agencies will not respond on time or the quality of their answers would be poor

The big bang

going public

at 5 pm on Wednesday, 11. November 2009

in the first 24 hours we received 95 suggestions

Statistics - after 2 years

5,965 registered users

Users

Age

Average age of users is 40 years; average age of Slovenian

citizens is 41 years.

13% are younger than 24 years

50% are between ages 24 and 45

37% are older than 45 years

Education

57% have college or university degrees

Slovenia: 25%

Statistics - after 2 years

5,965 registered users

2,105 suggestions (3 per day) 285 were rejected by moderators

12,494 comments (9 per suggestion) max 441

20,823 votes (15 per suggestion) max 991

469 suggestion (35%) got the majority support and were forwarded for answering

Response time

24 days on average 53% published before the 20-day deadline set by the

government regulation

80% in 30 day or less, as promised to users

91% of answers are prepared in 40 day or less

Responses

39% - negative

47% - the solution in place already effectively addresses the issue or something similar will be implemented shortly

10% - the suggestion is one of the possible solutions, but the government has not yet decided on how to proceed

3% (13) got a positive response 8 already implemented

Positive answers

micro issues

lower Value Added Tax on washable dippers

lower duties on vehicles used for transportation of disabled

THE ISSUE

Quality of government responses

justified rejection or acceptance of proposals

thorough analysis of the proposal

Remedies

designated coordinators

raising the bar

Further modifications

Voting in debate stage

Now possible

Users want to follow the implementation of

adopted suggestions

New government – new game plan

Lifting the significance of the platform

Getting the Prime Minister involved – supporting

particular suggestions

Good for the platform and PM’s PR

Is it a success ?

Received predominately positive responses from users,

academia and media

Is it a success ?

Received predominately positive responses from users,

academia and media

operational in less than 6 months

16,257.00 € spent in 2 years

unexpected numbers

Slovenia on the UN e-participation index

2003 – rank 36

2004 – rank 41

2005 – rank 46

2008 – rank 55

2010 – rank 20