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Benefits of Polis

Polis is unique to XRUK in terms of using for enhancing inclusion in assemblies and allows further exploring of the issues arising from assemblies for days, weeks or even months afterwards.

Briefly, this deliberative democracy digital tool has the potential to:

  • allow for deeper, lasting impact of deliberative exercises;
  • facilitate dynamic discussions and deeper dives into potential solutions to complex issues
  • allows for greater measuring of opinion and consensus with its capabilities
  • raise awareness and facilitate scaled inclusion in participatory or deliberative democracy
  • raise awareness, understanding and support of XR's 3rd Demand for a Citizens Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice
  • engage thousands of allies and the wider public to explore ideas alongside us,
  • to participate in an online citizens' assembly-style process with clear, transparent outcomes, (albeit this will be a community assembly until we achieve a mandate for citizens assemblies in government decision making, with proper, associated standards).
  • potential for UK-wide media coverage due to uniqueness and level of engagement.

Polis as a Modern Digital Tool

Inclusive Participation

Polis is an interactive, inclusive, online tool that helps groups of people have fairer conversations and make decisions together with the aid of algorithms whose purpose is to find consensus. Unlike standard polls, it involves people directly in the conversation by enabling them to contribute their own statements and ideas on issues they care about.

Understanding Group Opinion at Scale

Polis is especially useful when you want to understand what a large group of people or a population thinks about a certain topic. It is particularly valuable when you need to understand who exactly believes what within a larger group, for instance, identifying opinion clusters among people with varying levels of experience or background.

Transparency & Statistical Rigour

Polis produces reports both statistically and meaningfully in different formats. This allows for transparency throughout the process. Only the most insightful statements, or those reflecting the views of many respondents, are placed back into the 'pool of ideas' (or statements) to be voted on by other users. Those ideas and contributions of participants which are gaining traction show up more for further engagement and exploration. This combination of capabilities gives legitimacy and weight to any Polis deliberation process, supporting adoption by organisations and institutions and potentially supports fundraising.

Policy & Community Applications

  • It can be used as a stand-alone tool, or in conjunction with community assemblies, strengthening those processes by "harvesting the wisdom of the crowd".
  • It has been applied to complex policy debates, such as data-driven political campaigning, where it allowed people to define key issues in their own words[4].
  • It enables mapping of the values and motivations underlying people's beliefs, making it a useful tool for finding solutions to difficult policy issues[4].
  • Tech upskilling makes system learners potentially more employable, which in turn, may make the democratic process attractive to a younger demographic.

Deeper Digitalist Dive

For further info on how it has worked elsewhere at a national scale, search:

  • Consensus Building in Taiwan, the Poster Child of Digital Democracy

Polis has been central to the success of Taiwan's increased participation in politics and civic life. A topic is put up for debate and anyone with an account can comment on and downvote or upvote other people’s comments. While this may appear similar to other participation tools or forums, there are several features that set Polis apart.

First is that Polis does not allow the risk of trolls disrupting the debate. As the avatars of each user cluster around specific viewpoints, the platform’s design hides divisive statements, provocation and trolling. The debates are spared the toxicity prevalent on other platforms, which so often fail to foster civil discourse.

Second, it turns the upvote and downvote feature into one that clusters people who vote similarly. A visualisation emerges for administraters of the system, highlighting where there are like-minded viewpoints and division. This can inform policy developmen better than any simple poll can, as it harvests the wisdom of the crowd and makes room for lived experiences and insights.

As the debate begins, Polis draws a map, showing all the different pools of agreement and dissent as they emerge. As views are expressed in greater numbers, the platform gives visibility to statements that find consensus not just among people within the same ideological bubble, but with those outside as well. This bridges divides in contentious debates.

Polis in essence gamifies the process of finding consensus. It encourages users to propose and refine viewpoints to win greater support from all sides of a discussion. The greater the consensus around a viewpoint, the greater attention it gets.

Eventually, a group of consensual statements emerge. The final viewpoints may not appear like any of the ones made at the beginning of the discussion. The new consensus can then be turned into laws and regulations.

Summary As a digital engagement platform, Polis offers a powerful framework for collective decision-making and community governance on a large scale.

Sources - en.wikipedia.org - forum.effectivealtruism.org - demos.co.uk - the-sra.org.uk

  • How do we find consensus? [42secs]: https://youtu.be/HXN-w_9087Y
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