The Conseil d'État has just devoted its annual study to citizenship: "Being a citizen today".

The Conseil d'État analyzes the evolution of the status of the citizen, shaken by the crisis of confidence in the representative system, by the persistence of inequalities and by a blurred perception of the duties inherent in civic life: it also analyzes " the renewed forms of expression of citizenship".

According to the Conseil d'Etat, three phenomena illustrate this evolution.

• The first is the progressive construction of a citizenship of commitment. The vitality of civic service, of associative commitment and of the social and solidarity economy as a whole show that commitment to the service of general interest causes is experienced as an enrichment of individual paths, making it possible to recreate a collective link.
• The second phenomenon is the consolidation of digital expressions of citizenship. Indeed, many people see digital technology as a potential source of enrichment of citizenship; this is reflected in the "civic tech" movement. The latter expresses an infatuation for more participatory forms of democracy, complementing, without seeking to supplant, representative democracy.
• Finally, " administrative citizenship" is exercised through the specific rights recognized to citizens in their relations with the public authorities, as well as through all the consultative processes that associate users, citizens, in the elaboration of public decisions (public inquiries, local consultations, various participative approaches).

The new digital forms of expression of citizenship

The digital tool also makes it possible to lighten the organization of electoral or consultation processes and, potentially, to simplify and strengthen the methods of public participation. Several recent consultations organized on the Internet have thus been, as the Conseil d'Etat notes, "quite successful". (See in this regard: In 2017, more than 100,000 citizens contributed or participated in online public consultations).

Civic tech redefines the notion of citizenship

This movement essentially includes four categories of activities.

• The promotion of openness and transparency of information, first of all, especially that held by public administrations.
• Participation in decision-making: This can involve, for example, facilitating the organization or implementation of existing public debates or supplementing them by organizing debates between citizens on the same subject. By connecting to the proposed tools, citizens can get information on current projects and give their opinions or suggestions.
• The third type of activity implemented by civic techs is to propose solutions to improve interactions between institutions and elected officials on the one hand, and citizens on the other. This can consist in the creation of exchange interfaces that allow direct dialogue with elected officials or even participation, in a co-construction logic, in the elaboration of public decisions. Participatory financing platforms for local projects are part of the same dynamic.
• Finally, "civic techs" and "gov techs" can encourage and crystallize the mobilization of citizens in favor of actions or causes of general interest: participatory financing for projects of general interest, platforms combining various participatory exchange or analysis sharing tools, which allow to mobilize teams in a larger and more efficient way, within the framework of electoral campaigns for example or those of NGOs.

Civic techs" have not yet fully realized their promise of civic renewal

This relative failure results, first, from an inherent difficulty in participatory and deliberative processes open to the public: "the citizens or actors who actually participate in these processes are, as a general rule, essentially those who are directly interested in the positive or negative consequences of the projects in question, to which are added the traditional pressure groups that defend their economic or social interests. As most sociological studies have shown, digital technology, which has the potential to facilitate and broaden the scope of participation, tends to reproduce the biases and inequalities observed in consultations conducted in the traditional administrative and political sphere.

In addition to this disappointing observation, which may diminish over time, there is the factor of the digital divide: "certain categories of populations do not have either permanent access to the Internet, or the material means or the cultural background necessary for these new tools to allow their effective participation in consultative or deliberative processes. The public and private policies that tend to generalize access to digital technology are therefore a necessary condition. However, digital technology has already allowed for a significant rejuvenation of participation mechanisms.

An observatory and a label to encourage the civic tech ecosystem

The Council of State thus envisages the establishment of an "observatory of civic techs and democratic innovation." This observatory should closely associate the Parliament, the future constitutional assembly of the civil society foreseen by the project of revision of the Constitution, the big associations of territorial elected representatives and, of course, representatives of the developers of civic techs".

It also envisages the attribution of a citizen label, in order to encourage the projects that are of most interest to the public authorities and to amplify the dynamics of innovation.

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