- Federal Council to develop supplementary strategy on how civic tech promotes the digital development of existing forms of political participation.
- Civic Tech improves interactive citizen participation using ICT, especially in petitions, consultations and hearings.
- Current federal reports do not cover civic tech; funding offers cost-effective opportunities for equal opportunities and broader participation.
Postulate Müller (17.4017): Exploiting the opportunities of “Civic Tech
Submitted text
The Federal Council is instructed to address the question of how citizens can better participate in the political process in Switzerland using the possibilities offered by “Civic Tech”. It is to present its considerations as well as concrete future possibilities for application and action in a supplementary strategy to the “Federal Council’s Strategy for a Digital Switzerland”. The focus is to be on the digital further development of existing forms of political participation, such as petitions, consultations and hearings. The rights and processes surrounding votes and elections as well as e‑government are not to be part of the report.
Justification
In the report “Federal Council Strategy for a Digital Switzerland”, the Federal Council only presents e‑voting and the new media options in the chapter “New forms of political participation” in order to make digitization usable for political participation. In addition, however, there are other legally anchored opportunities for participation, such as petitions (BV Art. 33) or consultations and hearings (BV Art. 147). In the area of hearings in particular, digital technologies offer new opportunities so that citizens affected by political decisions can be better involved and, above all, interactively.
Civic Tech stands for technical concepts from the field of information and communications technology ICT that improve the engagement and participation of citizens. The various areas covered by Civic Tech include e‑government and e‑voting as well as other forms of political participation involving ICT. Simple interaction with the authorities and politicians, instead of simple one-way communication, plays an important role here.
However, the Federal Council’s existing report does not include these other forms of political participation. The report “E‑Democracy and E‑Participation” published by the Federal Chancellery in 2011 is, on the one hand, no longer up to date and, on the other hand, does not indicate any significant ways in which the Confederation could promote civic tech. Particularly with regard to achieving the core objective of “equal opportunities and participation for all” formulated in the “Federal Council Strategy for a Digital Switzerland”, Civic Tech offers good and relatively inexpensive opportunities for the further development of our democratic system. This is especially imperative outside of e‑voting, e‑government and information dissemination.