Participatory Policymaking

Through participatory policymaking, residents propose, debate, and vote on new policies and policy changes, through online platforms and meetings. Participatory policymaking has been used in places such as Taiwan and Spain to introduce and adopt government policies on issues such as transportation, environment, technology, and public health.

Plan your participatory policymaking process

Source: Decide Madrid

Participatory Policymaking in Action

Madrid, Spain

A video that explains how Decide Madrid, the city council's platform for citizen participation, assists citizens to coordinate with their communities to create stronger proposals.

Montevideo, Uruguay

This case study of "Montevideo Decide" demonstrates how digital platforms can be used to give people power over local policymaking.

Leuven, Belgium

The city of Leuven, Belgium used a digital platform to involve residents in the creation of a local strategic plan.

This is the tool we imagined when we started doing digital democracy practices in the squares and streets.

- Miguel Arana, former director of citizen participation for the City Council of Madrid

vTaiwan’s scope is not limited to Taiwan or any particular government; it’s an experiment to prototype a model for consensus generation among large groups in general.

- Audrey Tang, digital minister, Taiwan

Featured Resources

The simple but ingenious system Taiwan uses to crowdsource its laws

This case study details the successes and challenges of a participatory policymaking initiative in Taiwan.

Democracy Beyond Elections: Participatory Policymaking Model

This resource maps the key steps of participatory policymaking.

Transforming Governments via Citizensourcing

This blog post provides information about citizensourcing, a type of participatory policymaking, in Medellín, Colombia; Paris, France; and cities in Belgium.

More Resources

Sample Playbook

Review key design questions that you will need to answer to plan a participatory policymaking program, and sample answers to these questions. To create a plan that works for your situation, start your own participatory policymaking playbook. The playbook will walk you through the most important questions to answer when designing a process. Each step of the way, we will share recommended options and information to help you decide. At the end, you will have a plan for your process.