Citizen Participation and Technology

The recent, rapid rise in the use of digital technology among citizens and civil society organizations offers the possibility of strengthening citizens' voice in politics, carving out new political space for activism and promoting more government accountability. It is clear that these technologies are increasingly complementing citizens' political participation, changing relationships between citizens, organizations and public institutions, and expanding notions of political behavior and participation. Examples include the use of social media for mobile organizing in Arab Spring countries, interactive websites and text messaging systems that enable direct communications between constituents and their elected leaders in Uganda, crowdsourcing election day experiences, and adapting computers and phones in order to increase opportunities for participation in the earthquake reconstruction process in Haiti.