How democracyLab works

DemocracyLab functions as a participant-structured forum for political dialogue. When expressing a point of view about a political topic, most of us think in terms of opinions. DemocracyLab offers participants the opportunity to voice their opinion, but challenges them to understand and express their thinking more fully.

We believe that opinions can be broken out into component pieces:

• values or core beliefs

• ideas of how values should be applied to issues

• policies advocating the specific implementation of ideas

• laws bringing policies into force by government

This data structure is supported by facts that can be objectively verified.

An example of how this logical framework can be utilized is shown to the right, illustrating the thinking behind democracyLab.

Participants can post statements of an opinion, fact, value, idea, policy, or law. Participants will have the opportunity to vote on any post, indicating their level of agreement and their assessment of the post’s importance. Participants will also be able to link one post to another and vote on the characteristics of each link.

The website will use algorithms similar to those of popular search engines to analyze this participant-defined data structure and harvest the best thinking from democracyLab’s community of users. These peer reviewed components will be used as building blocks for the formation of public policy positions.

Individuals and organizations could use the resulting data as a tool to advocate their point of view. Elected representatives could use democracyLab to gain insight into the thinking of their constituents, to test policy ideas, and to communicate with participants who opt into direct contact.