{"id":4001,"date":"2017-02-07T10:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T09:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?p=4001"},"modified":"2017-02-02T17:36:01","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T16:36:01","slug":"uk-digital-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy","title":{"rendered":"Digital Democracy in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2015 the speaker&#8217;s commission published a report &#8220;Open Up!&#8221; recommending a series of changes and policy recommendations to keep parliament up to date in today&#8217;s digital world. Some of the changes were radical, some were less so and most of them made sense. The report gives us a fantastic starting point from where we can explore Digital Democracy further in the coming weeks.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h4>Digital Transformation<\/h4>\n<p>The UK government has been implementing changes since 2013, where it began the &#8220;Digital Transformation&#8221; initiative. 25 government services have been moved online, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Voter Registration<\/li>\n<li>PAYE for employees<\/li>\n<li>Self Assesment tax service<\/li>\n<li>International visas<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Millions of people use these services each year.\u00a0 Shifting some government services online increases the speed and efficiency of departments, reducing costs while maintaining a good service. Most people have become accustomed to dealing with government bureaucracy online. It is hard to imagine going back to frustrating and slow paper systems for relatively simple requests.<\/p>\n<p>The UK parliament is, unfortunately, lagging behind. For many, it is seriously outdated in the modern world. MPs are believed to be hard to contact and hardly accountable to their constituents. Recent scandals and a general frustration with politicians have been exacerbated by plans for a \u00a34bn GBP refit of the Palace of Westminster. This has, for many, emphasised pre-existing class divides and entrenched the idea that politics is wholly unrelatable. Understandably, parliament is desperate to change their reputation and increase public engagement in politics. The speaker&#8217;s commission established the Digital democracy Commission to investigate the aspects of engagement that could be helped through digitalisation.<\/p>\n<h4>Public Engagement<\/h4>\n<p>Indeed, political engagement lies at the core of the 2015 report. Many government initiatives have been established to look at democratic engagement in the face of falling voter turnout. However, none have been as radical as the &#8220;Open Up!&#8221; report. No one does nor should expect that the digitalisation of a few services will solve the issue of democratic engagement. Increasing engagement and turnout should be a long term goal. The commission identified a few areas in which parliament could do better.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Improving public knowledge. This aspect of the report is ultimately the most important in increasing voter engagement. Many people do not engage in politics because they do not understand enough for it to be relatable or even interesting.<\/li>\n<li>Reducing Jargon \/ political language. While arguably a symptom of a lack of political education, the commission reports that political jargon was a serious complaint during their research.<\/li>\n<li>Making Parliament information easier to find. Improving the search function and the layout of parliament&#8217;s website as well as providing as much audio\/video functionality as possible.<\/li>\n<li>Reaching out to groups that feel under-represented and tackling digital exclusion. This aspect is to make sure that access to political engagement does not become limited by one&#8217;s knowledge of technology.<\/li>\n<li>A fully digital parliament. This highlights the inefficient way in which parliament votes are counted and suggests alternative ways of voting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Updating Elections and Voting Procedures<\/h4>\n<p>This aspect of the commission&#8217;s report is particularly interesting. It highlights the dropping voter turnout and highlights the need to turn this around. The commission praises the introduction of the online voter-registration tool and notes that online voting could be a way of increasing turnout.<\/p>\n<h4>Impact: UK Digital Democracy in 2017<\/h4>\n<p>One positive for Digital Democracy is the introduction of the petitions website. This has provided people with the ability to raise awareness for any topic and parliament is required to respond if it attracts over 10,000 signatures. Online voting in the UK is still a long way off &#8211; the most digital aspect of voting that parliament has implemented is the release of an app where people can see which way MPs have voted.<\/p>\n<p>It seems, unfortunately, that parliament has not heeded much of the suggestions laid out in the report in the short term. Indeed, parliament must feel it has more important work to be done regarding Brexit and party politics. It is, however, the digitalisation of democracy and a more engaged education policy that can bring the public to engage with politics once more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2015 the speaker&#8217;s commission published a report &#8220;Open Up!&#8221; recommending a series of changes and policy recommendations to keep parliament up to date in today&#8217;s digital world. Some of the changes were radical, some were less so and most of them made sense. The report gives us a fantastic starting point from where we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":4209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","ub_ctt_via":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[37],"tags":[75,1028,1032,1030],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ballot.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Charles Harding","author_link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/c-harding"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Digital Democracy in the United Kingdom: Increasing Engagement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The 2015 report &quot;Open Up!&quot; promised so much for digital democracy from online voting to increased engagement. What has it achieved?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Digital Democracy in the United Kingdom: Increasing Engagement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 2015 report &quot;Open Up!&quot; promised so much for digital democracy from online voting to increased engagement. What has it achieved?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"POLYAS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-07T09:00:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-02T16:36:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ballot.jpg?fit=860%2C294&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"860\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"294\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Charles Harding\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Charles Harding\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy\",\"name\":\"Digital Democracy in the United Kingdom: Increasing Engagement\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-07T09:00:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-02T16:36:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3b9240fa164074e2fc773e7fcd238148\"},\"description\":\"The 2015 report \\\"Open Up!\\\" promised so much for digital democracy from online voting to increased engagement. What has it achieved?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"de-DE\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Startseite\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/de\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Digital Democracy in the UK\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"POLYAS\",\"description\":\"the blog for secure online voting\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"de-DE\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3b9240fa164074e2fc773e7fcd238148\",\"name\":\"Charles Harding\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de-DE\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9eee54a942871db9227087900a40d73?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9eee54a942871db9227087900a40d73?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Charles Harding\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.polyas.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/c-harding\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Digital Democracy in the United Kingdom: Increasing Engagement","description":"The 2015 report \"Open Up!\" promised so much for digital democracy from online voting to increased engagement. What has it achieved?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy","og_locale":"de_DE","og_type":"article","og_title":"Digital Democracy in the United Kingdom: Increasing Engagement","og_description":"The 2015 report \"Open Up!\" promised so much for digital democracy from online voting to increased engagement. What has it achieved?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy","og_site_name":"POLYAS","article_published_time":"2017-02-07T09:00:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-02-02T16:36:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":860,"height":294,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ballot.jpg?fit=860%2C294&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Charles Harding","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Verfasst von":"Charles Harding","Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit":"3 Minuten"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy","url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy","name":"Digital Democracy in the United Kingdom: Increasing Engagement","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-02-07T09:00:24+00:00","dateModified":"2017-02-02T16:36:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3b9240fa164074e2fc773e7fcd238148"},"description":"The 2015 report \"Open Up!\" promised so much for digital democracy from online voting to increased engagement. What has it achieved?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"de-DE","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/uk-digital-democracy#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Startseite","item":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/de"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Digital Democracy in the UK"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/","name":"POLYAS","description":"the blog for secure online voting","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"de-DE"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3b9240fa164074e2fc773e7fcd238148","name":"Charles Harding","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de-DE","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9eee54a942871db9227087900a40d73?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9eee54a942871db9227087900a40d73?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Charles Harding"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.polyas.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/c-harding"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ballot.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p72Pnr-12x","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4299,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/e-democracy","url_meta":{"origin":4001,"position":0},"title":"E-Democracy: Not What you Think it is","date":"16\/02\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Simply put, e-democracy is the use of information technology and communication technology in democratic sectors within political processes. However, there is much more to it than that. Read on to learn more. E-democracy (also known as eDemocracy) can be divided up into two halves: short-term and long-term. Ultimately, the long-term\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Democracy&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"E-democracy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/digitalisation.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4983,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/digital-participation-advantages-disadvantages","url_meta":{"origin":4001,"position":1},"title":"Digital Participation &#8211; the Advantages and Disadvantages","date":"10\/05\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In the previous installments of this series, we have covered some of the different forms of digital participation. Today we will be assessing the overall benefits and drawbacks of participating in a digital world.\u00a0 The Advantages of Digital Participation The main goal of online democracy is the strengthened integration of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Democracy&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Digital Participation","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Digital-Participation.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4795,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/e-democracy-3","url_meta":{"origin":4001,"position":2},"title":"E-Democracy: Increased Participation and Transparency with Technology","date":"13\/04\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"E-Democracy is a form of digital participation that's popping up more regularly these days. As a buzzword it's being thrown around in politics and on social media alike and has more than a few people rubbing their hands in anticipation. In the first part of our new series on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Democracy&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5753,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-trends\/digital-national-elections-soon","url_meta":{"origin":4001,"position":3},"title":"Why Digital National Elections are Only a Matter of Time","date":"04\/10\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Digital national elections and E-voting is the future despite recent negative press surrounding the German national elections. Read about how half measures are endangering democracy and the impact of online voting. Digital National Elections? Elections are traditionally the realm of pen and paper. Recently, however, the counting of ballot papers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Trends&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Online Election Security","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Polyas-Security.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":688,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/youth-day-young-people-democracy-and-elections","url_meta":{"origin":4001,"position":4},"title":"Youth Day: Young people, democracy and elections","date":"12\/08\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, the 12th of August, is \"International Youth Day\". This growing generation has been given many names - from \"Generation Y\" and \"Digital Natives\" to \"Generation Maybe\". Naturally all of these labels are mere approximations in the attempt to figure out a generation raised under entirely different political and media\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Democracy&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/jugend-politik.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8679,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/polyas\/pandemic-and-digitisation-in-europe","url_meta":{"origin":4001,"position":5},"title":"How the pandemic is driving the digital working world","date":"31\/03\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Covid-19 pandemic is turning the working world upside down. Recent weeks and months have seen radical changes to the way that work is conceived and organized in companies, associations, trade unions and other institutions. What was previously unthinkable is now a part of everyday digital working: Virtual meetings, home\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;About POLYAS&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Digitisation in Europe - How the pandemic is driving the digital world of work","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Pandemic-and-digitisation.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4001"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4183,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions\/4183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}