The Democracy Machine project aims to advance both social scientific theory and the practice of digital democracy.

This project is an example of “action research” or “engaged scholarship.” We seek to do a few things at once: theorize a deliberative democratic system online; help design such a a system; test the efficacy of such designs; and assist nonprofit or for-profit entites commited to advancing such tech while willing to experiment.

This broader vision is laid out in a 2016 white paper, Building a Democracy Machine: Toward an integrated and empowered form of civic engagement. The core empirical theory of online democracy appears in the 2021 article “A theoretical model of how digital platforms for public consultation can leverage deliberation to boost democratic legitimacy.”

The core empirical claims are that a well-structured online discussion process can foster high-quality public deliberation and recommendations. If a government is responsive to those outputs, it will gain public trust while bolstering participants’ political self-confidence. Finally, these results should promote future public engagements, resulting in a virtuous feedback loop. Iterations of these core claims are still developing, but the version in the 2021 article appears in this diagram.

Reflections on the larger challenge of building digital infrastructure, particularly in the United States, appears in the 2020 article “Digital democracy: Episode IV—A new hope: How a Corporation for Public Software could transform digital engagement for government and civil society.”

We aim to advance this research project while working a diversity of experts and civic leaders outside academia. We articulated that vision in a 2020 conference proposal to the National Science Foundation, “Challenges and Approaches to Building Noncommercial Digital Infrastructure for Deliberation, Decision Making, and Democratic Participation.”