Preview: Digital Citizens

By Peter Maxwell 07 : 11 : 2016 Democracy : Politics : Transnationalism

Global – At a time of great political turmoil, new digital tools are changing the nature of citizenship.

The public are falling out of love with party politics and looking for digital tools that enable them to vote issue by issue
Many consumers no longer feel that their identity is tied to one nation state

From the EU referendum in Britain to tomorrow’s presidential election in America, 2016 has been a year of increasingly polarised opinion and fevered political debate, both in terms of the choices the public have been presented with and the mechanisms by which those choices are made.

Consumers are growing increasingly frustrated with a lack of speed, transparency and relevance of established democratic systems. Innovators are addressing these points with new digital platforms to ensure that every vote truly counts.

MiVote is a digital platform that aims to create a fairer form of democracy for Australian citizens. The app tells users about what is being debated in parliament, provides them with relevant information on the issues and enables them to vote. In aggregate, these votes would dictate what legislation representatives of the MiVote Party, if elected, would support.

‘Digital democracy platforms provide a more informed, engaging and meaningful political relationship,’ MiVote founder Adam Jacoby tells LS:N Global.

The Big Idea

For more on how democratic systems and the question of what constitutes civic duty are being transformed by technology, read our Digital Citizens microtrend.