Parlement & Citoyens in France: An e-participation platform connecting legislators and citizens for collaborative policy design

Abstract

This chapter intends to advance the study of e-participation by exploring on an online platform which aims to connect legislators, civil society actors and citizens for a collaborative policy-design purpose. The focus is on a privately-run French e-participation platform Parlement & Citoyens (Parliament & Citizens) in order to identify how critical aspects related to the organizational features of the platform shape its outcomes: citizen participation, legislator involvement and the impact on policy design. Based on a qualitative analysis of interviews with a range of actors - citizens, the platform founder and legislators - the paper concludes that while the platform under scrutiny shows promising features to secure citizen and parliamentarian participation, broad-reaching impacts on policy design are not likely.