Available in Russian
Author: Tatiana Vasilieva
DOI: 10.21128/1812-7126-2023-5-124-141
Keywords: Latin America; information technology; digital platforms; national parliament; legislative crowdsourcing; Chile; Brazil
In modern conditions, information technologies have a significant impact on the activities of national parliaments, online platforms are being created to unite deputies and citizens, and legislative crowdsourcing is developing. In Latin America, where one fifth of all Facebook users live, the participation of citizens in the activities of public authorities is expanding within the framework of democratization processes. The most developed countries in the application and legal regulation of information technologies in the region are Chile and Brazil, where crowdsourcing platforms in national parliaments have been functioning for more than 15 years. The Virtual Congress of the Chilean Parliament and the e-Democracy of the House of Deputies of the Brazilian Parliament have the technological capacity to conduct on line public consultations with citizens, discuss draft laws and propose amendments to them, put forward citizen initiatives for consultation on the drafting of bills, and participate in setting the agenda. Despite the fact that in both countries public authorities do not enjoy the trust of the population, members of parliament do not demonstrate a special interest in the development of digital communication. Citizens are aware that social networks provide an opportunity to engage in politics and that their voices can be heard not only during an election period. At the same time, as the practice of these States shows, in order to become effective, legislative crowdsourcing must become part of parliamentary procedures and lead to significant changes in political culture. An educational platform created for one of the Chilean parliament’s chambers later turned into a full-fledged platform of both chambers, providing communication with users. In contrast to Chile, in Brazil each of the houses of parliament has its own digital platform. Both platforms are focused on ensuring broad citizen participation, but only the Chamber of Deputies’ e-Democracia portal has a deliberative component.
About the author: Tatiana Vasilieva – Doctor of Sciences in Law, Associate Professor, Chief Research Fellow, Human Rights Department, Institute of State and Law, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Citation: Vasilieva T. (2023) Kraudsorsingovye platformy v parlamentakh Chili i Brazilii: popytki deliberatsii [Crowdsourcing platforms in the Parliaments of Chile and Brazil: new approaches to deliberation]. Sravnitel’noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol. 32, no. 5, pp. 124–141. (In Russian).
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