Empowering Democracy through digital tools!

In the wake of the economic crisis and in a country where politics has all too often been beset by scandals and corruption, Vouliwatch aims to help develop an open and accountable political system that uses new digital technology to promote citizen participation in the political process and to rebuild trust in parliamentary democracy. In the heyday of Ancient Greek democracy, citizens actively participated in political dialogue, and Vouliwatch aims to revive this essential aspect of a democratic society through the use of digital technology.

How it actually works!
Vouliwatch is a digital platform that offers Greek citizens the opportunity to publicly question MPs and MEPs on the topic of their choice, and to hold their elected representatives accountable for their parliamentary activity. It is loosely modelled on similar initiatives that are already running successfully in other countries (Ireland, Luxemburg, Tunisia, Germany, France and Austria).

Ask your MP and MEP

MPs and MEPs can post a public response to users’ questions and comments, bringing them closer to the citizens they represent and giving them the chance to engage in public dialogue, learning what issues are close to their voters’ hearts and allowing them to better represent their constituencies. Each MP and MEP has a devoted page on the website which details their CV, full contact details, committee activity and voting behaviour.

Crowdsourcing/bottom up approach

The platform also gives users the chance to influence political debate and to focus the attention of both the media and the politicians on issues that citizens believe are important and are not being discussed widely.Vouliwatch offers citizens the chance to share their ideas and experiences and to make proposals to parliament for political action. The community of users can then comment on and rate them. A Google map application depicts all submitted data with the option of filtering based on different criteria (location; subject categories such as e.g. education, tourism, etc.). Every 2 months all submitted data is summarized in a report and sent to all MPs by our team, as food for thought and action. Vouliwatch will then publish and promote any resulting parliamentary reaction.

Votewatch

Votewatch is our latest application which allows users to keep an eye on the voting behaviour of each MP while informing the public on the details and background information of each legislation.

Why support us?

At Vouliwatch we believe that democracy is not only about voting once every 4 years, but that a truly representative democracy must include citizens more actively at every level of the process. Vouliwatch’s digital platform provides a tool to allow this, but we need your help and support to continue to do so.

Vouliwatch, an independent, registered non for profit organisation, has been up and running since mid March 2014. The project has been self financed and its activities supported by volunteer and pro-bono work. We are proud to say that despite the lack of sufficient funding, the weak digital culture in our country and the overall unstable political climate, our impact has so far been surprisingly positive. Our platform counts more than 1000 registered users, 10.000 unique monthly visitors while about 500 questions and proposals have been submitted so far to the profiles of MPs who in turn have started to respond regularly! Our social media pages have more than 7.000 followers and our presence in the mainstream media has been very frequent. Moreover during this period we have successfully organized 2 topical political public workshops where citizens had the chance to debate and engage with their elected representatives face to face.

Vouliwatch stands for more accountability, transparency and bottom up participation. Be part of the change, join our efforts to empower democracy in Greece by contributing to this campaign!

Who are you?

I m the Managing Director of Vouliwatch.
Vouliwatch is a digital platform that engages Greek citizens with legislative politics and grants them with the opportunity to communicate, evaluate and hold elected representatives in the Greek and the European Parliament (MPs & MEPs) accountable. We are an independent, non-profit initiative aiming to promote public dialogue, knowledge, political participation and accountability between citizens and politicians.