In this project, we bring together traditional survey data, and new forms of crowdsourced and real-time data to understand what interventions actually help to sustain rather than hinder democracy.

The project aims to reduce wasted resources in public consultation. Indicators developed in the project will include new measures of the extent to which debates are consolidating in the public sphere using social media data, argument mapping, and opinion polling. Economic indicators of government capacity, as well as indicators of civil society capacity and the levels demand for inputs from citizens will be incorporated to complement those data.

The ultimate goal of the project is to use advances in traditional and new forms of data analysis, to work in accordance with the best that democratic theory and political philosophy has to offer. The project will involve agile design of indicator dashboards and complementary social interventions. In conjunction with international and national experts in public engagement, we will deliver field experiments to test feasibility of designs. We present a multi-disciplinary research agenda developing data science that responds to and integrates the lessons of democratic theory and empirical social science.