An online platform that allows citizens of Madrid, Spain to engage with local government on decisions about budgets, policies, legislation, and planning.

Following years of declining public confidence in local government and in the midst of austerity and corruption scandals in Spain, Madrid City Council designed and launched the Decide Madrid platform in 2015.

The online platform is part of a new generation of open source civic technologies which can be used to engage the public in decision-making. Decide Madrid aims to ensure transparency of government proceedings in the city of Madrid and to widen public participation in Council decision-making and spending processes.

Decide Madrid is powered by the open-source software Consul, and has been used to allow citizens of Madrid to engage with local government in four ways:

Participatory Budgeting: for citizens to make spending proposals for projects in the city
Debates: a platform for deliberation which doesn't lead to direct decision-making but gives the City access to public opinion
Proposals: citizens can shape government actions by directly proposing and supporting ideas for new legislation (that fall within the jurisdiction of the city council)
Consultations: Madrid City Council gives citizens the opportunity to provide opinions about and vote on council proceedings

Source: Decide Madrid

Year of publication: 2015

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