Fair Feed Ranking for Participatory Budgeting

Research identifies that the ranking of proposals within large-scale participatory budgeting (PB) platforms significantly influences citizen engagement and acts as a form of agenda-setting. Current systems, such as Consul Democracy, frequently prioritize proposals based on popularity, recency, or comment activity, potentially leading to inequitable exposure for other submissions. A new design, FairFeed, is proposed to address this by incorporating transparent preferences, boosting underexposed proposals, and allowing for crowd-sourced vetting, aiming to enhance fairness in democratic digital platforms.

The way information is presented in digital civic engagement platforms directly impacts democratic outcomes by shaping citizen awareness and participation. Ensuring equitable visibility for all proposals is critical for fostering inclusive decision-making processes and preventing algorithmic bias from concentrating attention on a select few.

Proposal ranking in large-scale participatory budgeting (PB) systems exerts significant agenda-setting power, influencing citizen inspection of proposals.

Forward consideration, not a verified fact.