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Commission on Democracy and Technology in Europe

Project Background

The role of the Chatham House Commission on Democracy and Technology in Europe is to examine the role of technology both as a driver and as a potential solution to the current crisis of liberal democracy.

The purpose of the commission is to be open and inclusive, engaging a wide community of users to develop a deliberative online research process that can help change the way policy research is conducted. We hope to open up the ‘black box’ of traditional investigative commissions and widen the range of inputs into the research process. The first stage of the project closed in 2019, with a research report launched in 2020.

To read the report, click here.

Or if you want to learn how the open research process worked, have a look here.

Project Team

The project is led by Hans Kundnani from Chatham House.

Guided by the members of the Commission, Chatham House published a report ‘The Future of Democracy in Europe: Technology and the Evolution of Representation‘ in March 2020. The report includes recommendations of practical ways in which technology can be used to renew and strengthen liberal democracy in Europe – in particular around increasing accountability and transparency.

We are grateful to Janus Friis for supporting the project.

Hans Kundnani Chatham House Hans Kundnani is Senior Research Fellow in the Europe Programme at Chatham House.

Commission

The Commission guiding the project from 2018 to 2020 consisted of experts on democracy, European politics, and technology, but also invited contributions from others. Our Commission members are listed below.

(please note listed affiliations reflect experts’ titles at the time of joining the Commission)

Francesca Bria Barcelona City Council Commissioner for Digital Technology and Innovation (until 2019)
Liam Byrne MP Member of UK Parliament Shadow Digital Minister
Wendy Hall Southampton University Professor of Computer Science and co-founder of the Web Science Trust
Yvonne Hofstetter Author, Das Ende der Demokratie (“The End of Democracy”, 2016)
Toomas Hendrik Ilves President of Estonia (2006-16)
Cyril Lage Cap Collectif Co-founder
Guillaume Liegey Liegey Muller Pons Founder and CEO
Adrian Lovett The Web Foundation President and CEO
Helen Margetts Oxford Internet Institute Professor of Society and the Internet
Luuk van Middelaar Leiden University Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union and its Institutions
Julia Reda European Parliament Member, Pirate Party Germany (2014-19)
Andreas Rödder Mainz University Professor of History
Marietje Schaake European Parliament Member, D66 (2014-19)
Shahin Vallée Economic Advisor to the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy (2012 -14)
James Williams Author, Stand Out of Our Light

Contact

If you would like to know more about this project, follow us on Twitter or get in touch with the team.

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