Citizen Participation and Machine Learning for a Better Democracy

The development of democratic systems is a crucial task as confirmed by its selection one the Millennium Sustainable Development Goals United Nations. In this article, we report on progress project that aims to address barriers, which information overload, achieving effective direct citizen participation in decision-making processes. main objectives are explore if application Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning can improve citizens' experience digital platforms. Taking case study "Decide Madrid" Consul platform, enables citizens post proposals for policies they would like see adopted city council, used NLP provide new ways (a) suggest might wish support; (b) group interests so more easily interact with each other; (c) summarise comments posted response proposals; (d) assist aggregating developing proposals. Evaluation results confirms have role play addressing some barriers users platforms such currently experience.