Towards Effective E-Participation of Citizens in the European Union: The Development of AskThePublic
This addresses the challenge for policymakers and citizens in the European Union to engage with public feedback more effectively, representing an incremental improvement over static approaches.
The paper tackled the problem of ineffective citizen feedback integration in e-participation platforms by developing AskThePublic, a Large Language Model-based chatbot, which was evaluated in 11 expert interviews and found to be valued for its interactive and structured responses.
E-participation platforms are an important asset for governments in increasing trust and fostering democratic societies. By engaging public and private institutions and individuals, policymakers can make informed and inclusive decisions. However, current approaches of primarily static nature struggle to integrate citizen feedback effectively. Drawing on the Media Richness Theory and applying the Design Science Research method, we explore how a chatbot can address these shortcomings to improve the decision-making abilities for primary stakeholders of e-participation platforms. Leveraging the "Have Your Say" platform, which solicits feedback on initiatives and regulations by the European Commission, a Large Language Model-based chatbot, called AskThePublic is created, providing policymakers, journalists, researchers, and interested citizens with a convenient channel to explore and engage with citizen input. Evaluating AskThePublic in 11 semi-structured interviews with public sector-affiliated experts, we find that the interviewees value the interactive and structured responses as well as enhanced language capabilities.