Challenge 5 Citizen Empowerment

Vision

For Bolt, the EU is a unique political space waiting to be filled with democratic life.
European citizens need to be empowered to make informed political decisions, be able to influence politics beyond elections alone, and exercise their democratic rights within vibrant, resilient, and deliberative democracies.

First, we encourage local communities to start looking at the European Union as a potential problem-solver (as opposed to a problem-maker) and to collaborate across borders when tackling local problems. Bolt will highlight opportunities to constructively use the European spaces where they exist, to use the tools already available for doing so, and to develop new channels for citizens to participate in political life. Furthermore, Bolt will engage in capacity-building activities to strengthen citizens’ ability to meaningfully participate in and influence political processes. And of course, we will practice what we preach by applying the standards we put down for citizen empowerment to ourselves.

We want to foster lively, pluralistic, and accessible public spheres, which is why we advocate for a range of measures to safeguard media freedom and pluralism throughout Europe and support fostering the emergence of a transnational European media landscape. We also support strong and dynamic cultural and creative industry sectors, as these are key to maintaining European pluralism. We also want to ensure the openness of public data. We think open data provides an ideal and effective gateway for citizen empowerment: it can provide an objective basis for analysis, debate, and education, as well as empower citizens to make innovative use of the data available to them and to acknowledge their role in generating change.

We want to increase citizens’ opportunities to influence political and policy processes. Throughout Europe, citizens choose their European, national, and local representatives through the act of elections, and we want to make sure that elections across all of Europe are free and fair. We also acknowledge that political innovations in general, and digital technologies in particular, have given rise to a variety of tools and processes that make it possible for citizens to actively take part in democratic civic life beyond elections alone. This is why we advocate for a range of concrete tools for strengthening participatory and transnational European democracy.

Foster vibrant, pluralistic, and accessible public spheres to enable citizens to make informed political decisions

Empowered European citizenship requires vibrant, pluralistic, and accessible public
spheres in the individual EU member states and in Europe as a whole. Informed political decisions are only possible under conditions in which information is freely accessible. This requires a functioning, healthy, and independent public sphere, one in which citizens not only have access to quality information but are also able to process this information; where diverse perspectives are publicly deliberated by the media, political actors, and civil society; and where citizens are able to choose between valid political alternatives.

Promote free and pluralistic cultural and media landscapes

“The freedom and pluralism of the media shall be respected.” Media freedom and pluralism are essential pillars of democracy and thus are enshrined as fundamental values in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Unfortunately, today’s European media landscapes are under high pressure and stress: independence and pluralism of the media are threatened in many European states, and a transnational European media landscape is still in its infancy. Furthermore, many citizens’ information and communication habits have shifted towards the Internet. On the one hand, the Internet facilitates access to information and offers citizens new opportunities for participation, discussion, and shaping opinions. On the other hand, the emergence of a digital marketplace for news poses fundamental challenges to quality journalism, both online and in print. News outlets everywhere are struggling to find sustainable business models, while coordinated misinformation campaigns are undermining the very essence of rational discourse and decision-making across the globe. This undermines public trust in democratic institutions. Bolt strives to support innovative solutions to these challenges by encouraging citizens to use the available tools needed to navigate today’s complex media landscapes. Bolt therefore advocates a range of measures to safeguard media freedom and pluralism throughout Europe and to foster the emergence of a transnational European public sphere. Bolt also advocates for the strengthening of Europe’s diverse cultural landscape in order to safeguard the pluralism that underlies the European project as a whole.

Ensure media pluralism

• Encourage the treatment of quality journalism as a public good, not a commodity. 5 While public broadcasting institutions in many European countries are expressions of an understanding of quality journalism as a public good, the quality of the media landscape also depends on a range of private actors. The vast majority of these actors struggle significantly to finance their endeavours with the tools available to them under free market criteria (i.e., advertising). In the digital realm, users often access news via social media, where non-transparent algorithms often cannot distinguish between quality and misleading media, and users expect to consume journalistic content for free. Some actors have moved their top-quality content behind paywalls, excluding non-paying users. Others, like The Guardian, have so far refrained from doing so, relying instead on readers’ subscriptions and a foundation model to keep their products accessible to all. Bolt strongly encourages the exploration of innovative funding mechanisms to ensure the provision of quality journalism as a public good, safeguarding its non-excludable and non-rivalrous nature all across Europe.
• Work to ensure freedom of information and freedom of expression. An engaged citizenry is not possible without the freedoms of information and expression. 6 These freedoms must be upheld on the Internet as well as offline. Bolt will work to ensure that relevant actions are taken to uphold freedom of information and expression in Europe, particularly in places where these freedoms are in danger. Bolt therefore calls on the Commission and the Member States to fully support and strengthen the tools already developed with regard to the promotion and protection of the rights and freedoms enshrined in Art. 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, such as the Media Pluralism Monitor and the Council of Europe Platform for the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists.
• Ensure the safety and security of journalists. The safety and security of journalists is fundamentally important for a pluralistic media landscape. Bolt will support a range of measures to ensure journalists in Europe are safe and have secure working environments, e.g. by calling on the Member States to fully support the initiative launched by Reporters Without Borders for the creation of a Special Representative to the United Nations Secretary-General for the safety of journalists.
• Demand transparency of media ownership and influence. In order to be able to make informed decisions, consumers of media must be able to understand whose interests a medium serves. States are invited to ensure the independence of their audiovisual regulatory authorities, and to take appropriate measures to achieve genuine transparency of media ownership and funding sources, safeguard the right of journalists to protect their sources and to protect journalists from undue influence, and, depending on their national context, to prevent possible negative effects of excessive concentration of media ownership.
• Foster education in media literacy. Media literacy includes all the technical, cognitive, social, civic, and creative capacities that allow a person to access the media, to have a critical understanding of the media, and to interact with it. In today’s news and media landscape, it becomes ever more important to be able to distinguish between credible and fake news sources and content. Bolt will seek to support educational measures undertaken by educational institutions such as schools, as well as aim to strengthen the role of civil society, public institutions, and academia in this area. As also mentioned in our Smart State chapter, Bolt supports efforts to teach “critical thinking” in schools, not only in relation to the media but also with regard to information disseminated by individuals (e.g. politicians) and institutions (e.g. NGOs, civil society organisations, think tanks, political parties).
• Push the EU to safeguard the democratic public sphere necessary for the functioning of a European democracy. In order for public spheres to be conducive to a functioning democracy, they need to be places where open and free deliberation amongst a variety of actors (e.g., citizens, civil society organisations, political actors, media, etc.) can take place. Bolt will strengthen the ability of the EU to uphold its citizens’ fundamental rights and to intervene effectively in cases where media freedom and pluralism are threatened in EU member states. 16 For instance, Bolt calls on the Commission to propose an Anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) Directive that will protect independent media from vexatious lawsuits intended to silence or intimidate them. 17 Bolt will explore the introduction of further mechanisms that allow for the effective oversight of media independence at the European level, which would be conducted by a politically independent body.
• Create a truly pan-European public sphere. Bolt shall encourage the EU to act where common rules in the Single Market may be necessary to prevent distortions in the functioning of the mediaarising from divergent Member State laws, especially with regard to online news and public media. Bolt will advocate for the creation of pan-European media outlets and for the dissemination of media content throughout the EU, in order to support the emergence of a transnational political public space and democracy, advocate for the cross-border accessibility of national public broadcasting content throughout the EU, and call for an increase in EU support and funding for training of journalists, as well as for quality and investigative journalism in the EU.
• Incentivise greater media coverage of EU affairs. Bolt will encourage live coverage of national and European parliamentary gatherings by public media as a contribution to fostering the emergence of a pan-European public sphere. It will call for practical measures at the EU and member state levels to incentivize more general media coverage of EU affairs. At the EU institutional level, this might include encouraging regular interviews of presidents of EU institutions with panels of national media outlets from across the EU. The goal would be to promote a deeper general understanding of the European dimensions of various national policies.
• Support the standards put forth by the Council of Europe to ensure media pluralism in Europe.

Fight to ensure that a strong and independent public media exists in the member states

• Ensure sustainable funding for public media. Encourage member states to grant public funding to media organizations only on the basis of non-discriminatory, objective, and transparent criteria. Work to ensure that a funding provision exists for media which are essential for pluralism (including geographical, linguistic, cultural and political pluralism) but are not commercially viable. Ensure that the EU has the ability to intervene in cases where state budget cuts to media actors endanger media freedom and pluralism. Specify that any EU funding is contingent on the adherence to core EU values as specified in Art. 2 TEU.
• Ensure media’s independence from government interference. Ensure that the public media in the EU member states are free from government interference. Ensure that public media are overseen by independent bodies, such as media councils, that are composed of a politically and culturally diverse membership.
• Work to ensure a healthy balance between public and private media journalism. Public, non-profit media have a unique role to play in preserving pluralism and democratic values; if the media only followed free-market principles, Europe’s cultural and linguistic diversity would be jeopardised. However, in some countries, concerns exist regarding the risk of unfair competition. Recognizing the different legal and organisational contexts in the Member States, Bolt will advocate for the strengthening or implementation of relevant control mechanisms, such as the introduction of independent media councils or media ombudspersons, to ensure that a healthy balance between public non-profit and private media exists.
• Push for the exploration and establishment of innovative mechanisms to involve citizens in public media’s programme selection.
• Promote the creation of a European media space. Call for an increase in EU support and funding for the training of journalists as well as for quality investigative journalism in the EU.

Create a European public broadcasting platform

• Work towards the establishment of a common European broadcasting platform in order to supply EU citizens with an effective means of receiving information about the political situation in the various member states. Encourage the European Broadcast to serve as a platform for translated content from the national services, with content being made available through multiple channels (radio, television, and internet). The French-German channel Arte 25 may serve as an example.

Support strong and dynamic cultural and creative industry sectors

• Stress the importance of the cultural and creative industry sectors for vibrant democracies. Cultural and creative industries are vital to vibrant, pluralistic, and accessible public spheres, as they complement the media in processing information and cultural content in any society. Politically relevant debates are often the subjects of literature, music, or theatre productions. Furthermore, culture and creativity play an important role in strengthening the unique identity of places. They can also be important drivers and enablers for innovation and entrepreneurship. Culture also has an important role to play in promoting social inclusion.26 Europe’s shared cultural heritage has served as a unifying force ever since the commencement of European integration after the Second World War, contributing to a shared sense of belonging across the EU. Bolt fully supports the European Union’s “unity in diversity” motto and stresses the importance of the cultural and creative industries in fostering constructive dialogues within Europe’s democracies.
• Call for an increase in EU funding for transnational cultural cooperation in Europe. EU funding for culture, through the Erasmus+ programme, supports programmes for Europeans to study, train, gain experience, and volunteer abroad, 27 thus contributing to exchange among Europeans and fostering the emergence of a shared European identity. Funding for the audiovisual, cultural, and the creative sector is provided through the Creative Europe programme. The EU also supports projects promoting conservation and research in the area of Europe’s cultural heritage. 29 Bolt advocates for an increase in EU funding for transnational cultural cooperation.
• Decrease the administrative burden of receiving funding. EU funding is often associated with an extremely high administrative burden for applicants, requiring a sizable investment of time and coordination. This makes it disproportionately difficult for small actors and civil society organisations to apply for funding. At the same time, external funding is of existential importance for many of these smaller actors, with EU funding playing a significant role with regard to their potential to engage in cross-border collaborations. Bolt advocates for a decrease in this administrative burden while ensuring that necessary transparency and accountability criteria are upheld.
• Foster measures to achieve the goals of the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

Open public data

Digitalisation, increased connectivity, openness and transparency are leading to changes in citizen expectations with regard to communicating with, and accessing the data of, public authorities. Open data (i.e., data collected by public institutions which is shared with the public) provides an ideal and effective gateway for citizen empowerment. It can provide an objective basis for analysis, debate, and education, as well as empower citizens to make innovative use of the data available to them. It can also be used to foster trust in government institutions as public authorities have the opportunity to become more effective and efficient, and citizens have the ability to verify political realities. In order for this to happen, however, citizens need the ability and skills to interpret this data. Our call to open public data on the one hand entails a
strong commitment to the protection of private data on the other hand, as well as a call to foster educational measures with regard to data interpretation literacy.

• Strongly advocate for the public availability and openness of public data. Advocate for understanding open data as a public good, meaning it is non-excludable (everyone has access to it) and non-rivalrous (usage by one person does not reduce its availability to others). Encourage the sharing of public data under an open licence and in an open format. Specifically, insist on the open-source character of publicly funded research.
• Insist on the protection of private data and ensure that published public data does not compromise privacy. Insist on the protection of citizens’ privacy with regard to the possibility of aggregating large amounts of data collected by government actors and private authorities. Ensure that no data may be linked to citizens’ personal information such as names, identification numbers, addresses, etc. Call for an increase in research about measures to safeguard the privacy of citizens, as data about them is collected by public (and private) authorities over a prolonged period of time.
• Advocate for a general increase in government transparency. Encourage making government data, priorities, and findings regularly accessible to citizens in a way that is easily understood, e.g., by regularly publishing “user-friendly” budget reports and by shedding light on legislative processes. Encourage the sharing of data and services between administrations in order to trigger savings and efficiencies.
• Stress the potential positive effects of open data with regard to knowledge building, citizen engagement, and innovation.
• Make sure that all EU member states and their local authorities comply with the Open Data Charter. Data should be
  (1) open by default (i.e., all data gathered by public institutions is published automatically, unless governments can justify keeping it undisclosed);
  (2) published in a timely and comprehensible manner;
  (3) accessible and usable (machine readable and under an open licence–this ensures that not only companies with highly paid staff can access it, but also ordinary people like high school students or interested retirees);
  (4) comparable and interoperable;
  (5) used for improved governance and citizen engagement, and
  (6) used for inclusive development and innovation.

Strengthen the ability of citizens to influence politics

Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees to all people “the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives”. 35 The functioning of the European Union itself is “founded on representative democracy” as well
as participatory democracy, with a wealth of different variations of democracy at local, national, and transnational levels. Everywhere throughout Europe, citizens choose their representatives through the act of elections. Yet, electoral democracy is complemented, and can be further
strengthened, via elements of participatory democracy. Political innovation in general, and digital technologies in particular, have given rise to a variety of tools and processes that make it possible for citizens to more actively take part in democratic civic life beyond elections alone.
Through widespread public participation in civic affairs and the use of democratic tools, citizens can help assure that their individual and collective interests are being heard and responded to by governments that are held accountable by citizens. Bolt advocates for the strengthening of EU democracy and its member states’ democracies through the creation of additional accountability mechanisms. Starting locally, citizens are encouraged to elevate issues to the European level
by collaborating across borders using both existing tools (e.g., freedom of information requests or complaints to the European Commission or EU Ombudsman)and new channels for citizen participation, such as European Citizens’ Initiatives. Bolt will engage in a range of capacity-building activities with the goal of enabling meaningful citizen engagement by allowing citizens, governmental institutions, and other actors to enter into a meaningful exchange. In doing so, Bolt will strengthen citizens’ ability to influence politics beyond elections alone.

Grant full voting rights to mobile EU citizens in the member state where they live.

• Ensure that all EU citizens are allowed to participate in democratic processes in the EU country where they reside. Under the current legislation, EU citizens living in a member state, of which they are not nationals, are allowed only to vote or stand as candidates at European and municipal elections 37. Thus, millions of EU citizens have no right to elect (or be elected as) representatives in the parliament of the country in which they live, work, and pay taxes. In addition, they are excluded from influencing decisions through direct democratic tools, such as referenda or citizen assemblies, which are becoming increasingly important in our evolving democracy. While more and more EU citizens are living outside national borders, the democracy deficit and exclusiveness are becoming serious issues, which threaten the functioning of our society. Therefore, we demand that after a certain period of permanent residence in the host country, mobile EU citizens be granted full voting rights (active and passive) at municipal, regional, and national levels. A blueprint for such a regulation can be found in developed democracies such as Scotland 38 and New Zealand that already have legislation in place. At the same time, voting rights in the country of origin should be restricted as a general rule to ensure equal representation and safeguard the democratic principle of “one person, one vote”. Under certain conditions and upon request, a mobile EU citizen may revoke the voting rights in the home country and abstain from voting in the host country. Harmonise the election law regarding the rights of mobile EU citizens and coordinate its implementation. All laws regarding the voting rights of mobile EU citizens have to be combined into a single piece of legislation. For this purpose, we want to advocate for the EC to implement a process and guidelines for a safe, barrier-free, digital, central registry and voting system with automatic voter recognition. The implementation should be accompanied by a wide information campaign, and its quality should be assured through ongoing monitoring, research, and analysis.

Improve accessibility of elections at European, national and local levels

• Ensure that all European citizens have the ability to vote in free and fair elections. The right to vote is one of the fundamental rights of European citizens. However, several groups of people (e.g., the disabled, elderly, or sick) are currently experiencing difficulties exercising their right to vote due to a lack of accessibility to elections. 41 Bolt will push for the removal of current barriers to participation in elections, such as restrictions on legal capacity, lack of access to information and polling stations, and a general lack of awareness among affected groups. Ensure that the organisation and scheduling of elections encourage high voter participation.
• Encourage EU citizens to exercise their rights to vote in the member state in which they live. Remove barriers currently hindering EU nationals living in another EU Member State from voting in elections in which they have the right to vote. Encourage Member States to make it easier for mobile EU citizens to register to vote and ease the administrative burden.
• Promote measures to incentivize mobile EU citizens to take advantage of their rights and opportunities to participate in their home and host country’s civic and political life.
• Explore e-voting. 44 Advocate for the further development and implementation of e-voting once security concerns have been successfully addressed. Encourage further research around the issue of e-voting, with the goal of providing all European citizens with a secure, anonymous, verifiable, and accessible electronic vote.

Strengthen the ability of citizens to influence politics beyond elections

Bolt is strongly engaged in democratising Europe at every level—locally, nationally, and transnationally—with a specific focus on giving Europeans a voice regardless of whether they live in their home country or not. Importantly, Bolt actively works towards democratising Europe by treating the European Union as a unique political space for action. Furthermore, Bolt is deeply convinced that citizens can provide valuable information, opinions, innovation, leadership, and action that can contribute to solving local, national, European, and global challenges. In today’s fast-paced environment, in order to counteract estrangement between citizens and their political
representatives, more productive interaction is needed between them.

The goal is to empower citizens and make them active participants in the political process, creating an environment more conducive for citizens to voice their concerns, offer their ideas, take initiative, and hold governments and their representatives accountable. Government officials and politicians, on the other hand, will be empowered to be closer to their constituencies, able to better understand their challenges, and able to tap into and build on the capacity of their community in order to solve identified challenges more effectively and collaboratively. Citizen engagement shall be promoted as a key factor in shaping the future of European democracy.

Strengthen transnational European democracy

• Utilise and promote the European Union as a unique transnational democratic space. Bolt recognizes the EU as a unique political space that can and should be used for citizens to articulate and organise their political demands. This may happen through coordinated action using established tools at the European level (such as European Citizens’ Initiatives, public consultations, and petitions) and informal, innovative actions. Bolt will enable citizens and civil society organisations to share their challenges and solutions across borders and learn from each other’s best practices. Many regions and local communities across Europe can identify similar challenges. Bolt encourages citizens and civil society organisations to organise together around these challenges to find solutions and bring their challenges to the attention of the relevant institutions and politicians, if necessary.
• Diminish the threshold for filing a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI). The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) allows EU citizens to participate directly in the development of EU policies by allowing them to call on the European Commission to make a legislative proposal on matters where the EU has a competence to legislate. 45 However, a citizens’ initiative currently has to be backed by at least one million EU citizens from at least seven member states, with a minimum number of signatories 46 required in each of these seven member states. Bolt wants to lower the threshold necessary for a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) by cutting the minimum number of signatories in half, to 500,000.
• Promote the establishment of a pan-European discussion platform for European citizens. Europeans everywhere are faced with similar challenges, yet, currently, there is a lack of spaces beyond social media (which pose privacy problems and the algorithms of which are not conducive to substantial debate) where issues can be discussed not only across language barriers but also with relevant stakeholders. A pan-European moderated discussion platform should aim to identify issues Europeans care about in order to then facilitate a moderated exchange beyond party lines among citizens and politicians, political institutions, civil society organisations, and other relevant interest groups. Discussions and exchanges should be moderated by an independent, multi-stakeholder entity adhering to a clear set of principles and values. Facilitation should involve a strong commitment to clear (n)etiquette and a bridging of party lines.

Strengthen tools for direct citizen engagement in politics

• Introduce digital platforms to communicate with administrations. Administrations shall be incentivised to introduce open digital platforms through which citizens can actively participate in relevant political discussions and decision-making processes. Subjects discussed on these kinds of platforms might include local infrastructure proposals or plans for restructuring public spaces. Deliberative processes taking place on such platforms should be transparent, respectful, and take existing administrative rules, frameworks, and procedures into account. Participation should be free to all interested persons affected by a particular measure. The online deliberative efforts taking place on the digital platform should be complemented by face-to-face consultations. The highest privacy and security standards should be implemented on the digital platform.
• Encourage the introduction of citizen assemblies. Citizen assemblies are an innovative tool to allow citizens to deliberate on complex political issues. They can increase the quality and legitimacy of political decisions, especially when the results of citizen assemblies directly influence policy or the spending of local funds.49 Citizen assemblies should be constructed in such a way that diverse groups of citizens are randomly represented, so that the diversity of the population is mirrored in the composition of the assembly; this diverse group of people then meets in order to tackle a specific issue. A clear process—involving comprehensive briefings and independent expert input—should enable these citizens to shape informed opinions. These can then be debated in a group in order to reach a shared output. Respective politicians should be held to account for the implementation of the citizen assemblies’ output; for this reason, it is important to secure the commitment and support of local politicians from the very beginning. Bolt advocates for the implementation of clear mechanisms to trigger a citizen assembly, such as requiring a quorum of signatures to be reached within a particular time frame.
• Promote participatory budgeting. Participatory budgeting allows citizens to directly influence and allocate government investments, provided that political buy-in and a respective budget exist. The process of allocating the budget collectively entails a process of deliberation and learning, with the goal of allocating budgets in such a way as to serve the public interest. The set-up of participants should reflect the diversity of the community affected by the budgeting measure. Training and capacity-building for citizens should be provided. Lastly, it needs to be ensured that the process is linked to assemblies or councils that have the power to supervise implementation by the administration. Thus, constructed, participatory budgeting may strengthen citizens’ democratic experience and impact. Implementation of participatory budgeting at the European level should also be explored.
• Explore further political innovations for implementation. All over Europe, innovative ideas regarding the topic of how best to involve citizens in deliberative and political decision-making processes arise all the time. Bolt will continuously explore such novel ideas and approaches. For instance, diverse citizen juries could be involved in shaping the debate around complex and highly politicised European decisions. Citizen audits could complement already-existing checks and balances on EU institutions.

Empower citizens and governments to take concrete action

• Enable and empower citizens and government actors to use citizen engagement techniques. Bolt advocates for a new way of doing politics, one where citizens feel empowered to actively participate in democratic life and feel their voice makes a difference. Citizens shall be enabled to organise in their communities around issues that are important to them and to act upon their values. They shall also be enabled to hold their government and politicians accountable. On the other hand, government officials, institutions, and politicians everywhere should be more responsive to, and might even encourage, citizen action. If citizens are at the centre of political decision-making and government actors know how to respond to such engagement, democracy will be strengthened.
  • Enable and empower citizens to utilise citizen engagement techniques and tools. Bolt strongly advocates for an increase in funding for citizen engagement projects throughout the European civil society sector. Bolt also advocates for the introduction of citizen engagement techniques, strategies, and tools into educational programmes at the high school and university levels. Such educational measures might be achieved by adding citizen engagement to existing curricula, or they might take the form of additional (one-day or several-day) civic engagement classes. Moreover, community organising and leadership development training shall be conducted in local communities, with the goal of actively educating citizens on how to organise and exercise their rights. Bolt will also aim to empower citizens through community organising campaigns, where citizens select the campaign issue and receive training in campaigning and leadership. Bolt will thus create and foster the emergence of new community leaders.
  • Enable and empower government institutions to be responsive to citizen engagement. Bolt advocates for the training of government officials and civil servants in the basics of citizen engagement, also with regard to fostering a supportive institutional and organisational culture of respecting and supporting citizen initiatives throughout government. This effort will be helped by the creation of online platforms that enable interactions between citizens and institutions at a local, national, and European level. Institutions shall be enabled to include more or stronger deliberative elements in their decision-making processes, encouraging well-structured public discussions using analogue forums as well as relevant technology.
  • Enable and empower politicians to be responsive to citizen engagement. Bolt will also encourage training on community organising and other citizen engagement frameworks to different political actors, in order to contribute to a general change in culture within the political landscape.