You are probably aware of the ‘We The People’ Petition website at petitions.whitehouse.gov which allows ordinary voters to sign or create petitions online. This interesting experiment in e-democracy is, at this time, pretty clearly a failure.
I think we should learn from its mistakes, and ‘reboot’ the concept into a much more powerful tool for participatory politics.
I am trying to bring this idea to the attention of the administration. To do this I have, and yes I am aware of the irony, created a petition at the whitehouse.gov website.
I would greatly appreciate it if you would sign it and help me reach my goal of 150 signatures, which will make the petition visible on the website and get my message to the administration.
The petition can be read and signed at this link: wh.gov/l7eDo. Thanks in advance!
Below the fold I go into more detail on the topics shown, follow me if you are interested:
- What are petitions for redress anyway?
- What is the whitehouse.gov petition website?
- What is its connection with e-democracy?
- Why do you say the petition website has failed?
- How do you propose the e-democracy experiment be rebooted?
- How will your petition accomplish the goal of continuing the e-democracy experiment?
What are these petitions?
The right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances is specifically protected in the first amendment to the United States Constitution. This particular right can be traced back to the Magna Carta (1215).
What is the whitehouse.gov petition website?
In September 2011, the Obama administration launched an experimental update of the ability of people to petition. The ‘We The People’ Petition Website allows ordinary voters to easily sign or create petitions online. A created petition becomes ‘public’ after it has received 150 signatures. It is guaranteed to be reviewed and responded to by the administration's policy experts if they reach a signature threshold (initially 5,000, then 25,000, currently 100,000).
What is its connection with e-democracy?
E-democracy incorporates modern information and communications technology to promote democracy. S. Coleman, in Promise and Problems of E-Democracy, comments that an effective representative democracy requires a five-way information flow (other flows are primarily administrative), and offers this appraisal of their status:
- Government to Citizen (G2C) - takes place largely via the mass media
- Citizen to Government (C2G) - is limited
- Representative to Citizen (R2C) - is limited outside of election campaigning
- Citizen to Representative (C2R) - is very limited
- Citizen to Citizen (C2C) - is the basis of a healthy civil society, but is in decline
In this framework, the wh.gov Petition Website is an e-democracy experiment aimed at creating a new structure for C2G information flow. The THOMAS website is an example of a (very successful) e-democracy initiative for R2C information flow.
Why do you say the petition website has failed?
As of this writing, the experiment has run into serious problems. The main criticism is that the interaction between the petition signers and the administration is not meaningful. The usual response to a petition has been a restatement of long-held administration viewpoints, and one can get this information much more easily with a minute of keyword searching on the internet.
Additionally, undeniably frivolous petitions have been able to exceed the increased signature threshold of 100,000 signers.
There are currently dozens of petitions which have exceeded the signature threshold and yet have waited many months without a response, so it seems that the administration has concluded the experiment has outlived its usefulness.
How do you propose the e-democracy experiment be rebooted?
The popularity of the website clearly shows that there is a deep hunger among ordinary voters to put new issues on the public agenda that aren't already there.
One could ‘mend, not end’ the petition experiment by changing it to address the current problems:
- Reduce frivolous petitions by increasing the signature threshold. If the increase were a factor of 18, that would be about 1% of all the registered voters in the US.
- Make the interaction meaningful: increase the ‘prize’ petition organizers get for reaching this threshold, by promising to hold an executive branch town hall meeting with them to discuss their concerns
- Using this process to increase political engagement by requiring petition signers to be registered US voters
This reboot would continue the e-democracy experiment, while also being less embarrassing than the current policy of simply ignoring the website petitions.
How will your petition accomplish the goal of continuing the e-democracy experiment?
The text of the petition is as follows:
Begin a New Tradition of Dialoguing with the American People Through Frequent Town Hall Meetings
Congress is currently dysfunctional and its approval rating is at the 13% level.
President Obama has stated, in a single sentence, both the problem and its solution: “That’s why I like getting out of the Washington echo chamber whenever I can - because too often, our politics aren’t focused on the same things you are.”
We call on the administration to show Congress the way forward by inviting the American people inside the Beltway.
You can accomplish this by beginning a new e-democracy tradition of frequent, low-key town hall meetings (see vtownhall.org). In these, ordinary voters will dialogue with administration leaders, with the voters and topics democratically chosen at an online forum open to all Americans.
The first ‘Fireside Chat’ was 81 years ago - begin a new tradition!
The petition text is limited to 800 characters, so only the important ideas behind my reboot are included. However, my specific suggestions about how to continue the experiment are fully describe in the website mentioned in the text.
My goal is to obtain at least 150 signatures, which will make the petition public. This will have the effect of getting the idea submitted to the administration, far more effectively than a letter to the whitehouse would do.