Democracy

The Consul Project

The award-winning open-source platform for citizen participation “Consul” ensures open, transparent, and democratic governance.

About the project

The project supports open-source technology and participation methods to gather constructive input from citizens and facilitates solution-focused deliberation and participation. With the help of these tools, diverse groups in society are encouraged to meet and work together toward the same goal of creating a better society, together with their institutions.

In order to build resilient democracies, it is important to work toward transparent modes of governance in which citizens are actively involved. The Consul project answers this challenge by supporting governments to collaboratively advance reliable tools for citizen participation.

The Consul project aims to introduce governments at the national and local level to the use of accountable and trustworthy tools of participation. Due to the digital approach, a high reach is ensured and less accessible target groups can easily be addressed. The project is thereby contributing to more open, transparent, and accountable governance, and higher levels of trust in democratic processes.

Governments at local and national level will be provided with a set of strategic and practical tools for setting up successful participatory processes and will be shown how to use Consul in a meaningful way. It offers a wide range of formats. The Consul Democracy Foundation coordinates the international work, while the German association Mehr Demokratie e.V. is the driving force behind the Consul approach in Germany. Both organisations promote the national and international exchange of best practice.