Goñi, I. (2026)
In this paper, we extend previous work examining the Civic Tech landscape. Here, Civic Tech refers to digital tools and information systems designed to support citizen participation in decision-making. There is a growing sense of saturation in the Civic Tech field. Perhaps it is telling that one of its best-known practitioner guides is called Don’t Build It.
But when we looked more closely, we found that multiplicity does not necessarily mean diversity. Many Civic Tech tools are working towards similar features, while other important functions receive far less attention. These include helping practitioners design participatory processes reflexively and in response to their specific context, or supporting the difficult political work that comes after participation: translating citizen input into decisions, explaining what happened to it, and holding institutions accountable. In our new paper, we call these “the features nobody wants to build.”
Civic Tech projects are also facing serious financial challenges, and long-term sustainability remains a major problem. But responses to these pressures can produce their own tensions. Projects seek to advocate for and embody democratic values while simultaneously importing the language and models of the digital economy. This is perhaps clearest in tier-based pricing: “basic” democracy may be available for free, but “platinum pro” democracy is reserved for those able to pay considerably more.
Our paper asks what these patterns tell us about the versions of democracy being built through Civic Tech. But we also strongly believe in (and work in) Civic Tech, so this is also a moment of self-reflection for us to find new sources of inspiration and push the space forward by asking tough questions.