What do you think Finland?

18 000 times thank you! Almost twenty-thousand citizens tried out a new online platform where everyone can have a voice.

There are statements on the platform that you can vote on by agreeing or disagreeing, or you can simply skip them.

Add your own statements so that the issues that matter to you are part of the debate.   

The platform does not require a login, and participation is anonymous.

See how others have responded and what opinion groups we fall into.

What is “What do you think, Finland?”

In this campaign, we are experimenting with the online platform Polis. This will make it possible to map people’s opinions in a consensus-building way.   

Finns want to be able to easily influence decision-making and common issues online. However, on social media the opinions of the loudest people are heard, and there is a risk that many are left out.   

The experiment will allow Finns to express their views on Finland’s direction by voting on proposed solutions and sharing their own ideas for others to vote on. It is a chance to make your voice heard and see what others think. After the experiment, we will summarise the results and forward the comments to the relevant ministries.   

The aim is for the platform to be used in the future to address a range of issues in municipalities, well-being services counties and even in the private sector. 

The ‘What do you think, Finland?’ experiment started on the International Democracy Day on 15 September and will end on 13 October 2023. 

What is Polis?

To strengthen democracy in Finland, we need agile ways to participate in public affairs.  

Based on open source code, Polis is an internationally tested online platform developed for democracy. In Taiwan, it was used to determine the conditions under which the taxi company Uber could operate on the island.  

The Polis platform allows a constructive discussion of a chosen topic, anonymously and without fuss. It provides information about what participants agree on, what they disagree on, and into which groups we are divided. This allows us to seek consensus rather than getting bogged down in disagreement.  

The Polis platform was developed by the US-based Computational Democracy organisation. Sitra was the first in Finland to adopt the platform.

More about the Polis platform and developing democracy

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Any questions?

These people will answer.

people
Hannu-Pekka Ikäheimo
Project Director, New forms of participation
people
Joonas Leppänen
Senior Lead, New forms of participation
people
Sanna-Kaisa Saloranta
Project Coordinator, New forms of participation
people
Ilari Lovio
Specialist (on extended leave), Communications and Public Affairs

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