Decision process support for participatory democracy

This paper presents a project and case study integrating decision methods into democratic processes. The case discussed is a set of three complicated decisions in a municipality in Sweden. The decisions had been postponed on several occasions prior to bringing in the method described in the paper. The method employed consists of two main parts. The interaction part contains the communication channels directed to the stakeholders. The decision-process part consists of a three-layered working process model. As a part of the method, the project was highly visible on the web. Citizens were encouraged to submit material to the project. All intermediate results of the process were continuously published, enhancing transparency. For each decision, the analysis consisted of comparing all alternatives, taking the respective criteria into account as weighted or ranked by the participants. A method for recording compromises analytically was also used. The purpose was not to replace the political process but to support it in a structured way.