Seminar (TURBA Lab). Behind Digital Participation Platforms: Conditions for Democratic Outcomes

Digital participation platforms are increasingly adopted by institutions and communities as tools for civic engagement, public deliberation, and co-production of collective decisions. Yet a fundamental question remains underexplored: are these platforms genuinely democratic?

 

This doctoral research addresses this question by developing a comprehensive analytical framework for assessing the democratic quality of platform ecosystems. Drawing on platform ecosystem theory, the study adopts a dual understanding of the platform, both as a technical infrastructure and a social ecosystem.

 

The research proceeds through three interconnected steps. First, it identifies the core democratic values that should underpin participatory platforms. Through documentary analysis of 75 liberal democratic constitutional charters, followed by systematic aggregation and elimination of overlapping or derivative values, the study distills 6 fundamental democratic values organized across universal, majoritarian, and essential categories.

 

Second, the research maps 12 analytical dimensions of the platform ecosystem and systematically cross-references them with the 6 identified democratic values, yielding 76 democratic indicators.

 

Third, the framework is applied through an in-depth case study of Decidim Barcelona, the open-source participatory platform developed and adopted by the city of Barcelona, which represents one of the most prominent and well-documented implementations of digital civic participation in Europe. The empirical assessment is conducted via a "democratic radar" scoring tool, allowing for a systematic evaluation of the platform's democratic qualities across all analytical dimensions.

 

The framework offers both a diagnostic instrument for evaluating existing platforms and a normative standard for designing more democratically grounded participation ecosystems. Its modular structure also allows for application beyond civic participation platforms to a broader range of digital platform ecosystems. In a wider perspective, this research contributes to the growing debate on the democratization of technology: by establishing clear democratic standards for participatory platforms, it lays the groundwork for extending similar evaluative and design criteria to other digital technologies (e.g. AI systems) raising the question of how emerging technologies can be developed, governed, and deployed in ways that genuinely reflect and protect democratic values.

 

Bio

 

Sebastiano Casati is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. His doctoral research focuses on the democratic quality of participatory platforms. Currently he is also leading an action-research project on volunteering in vulnerable areas of northern Italy as part of a broader PNRR project. His research interests lie at the intersection of platform ecosystems, democratic values, and civic and political participation, with a broader focus on social innovation and development.