This is the final post in a series written with the head of the Brazilian Senate's e-Citizenship Office about how the Brazilian Senate is using—and hopes to expand—artificial intelligence to enable greater citizen engagement in lawmaking. The previous post described the Senate’s Legislative Workshop initiative, and how AI could enable more widespread and impactful outreach to youth. We conclude the series with a discussion of the Senate’s online Public Consultation portal that allows citizens to voice their opinions on pending legislation and how AI could enable an even more deliberative and impactful system.
The Federal Senate has also created an online system of public consultation that allows citizens to voice their opinions on pending legislation. Over thirty million yes or no “votes” on bills have been recorded over the last decade.
The process, formalized by a 2013 resolution, opens all bills to public scrutiny. The law stipulates that “The Federal Senate website will house a mechanism that allows citizens to express their opinion on any legislative proposal” and that “any citizen, through a single registration with their personal identification data, may support or reject legislative proposals being processed in the Federal Senate.”
This type of non-representative plebiscite provides a snapshot of public opinion rather than an occasion for deliberation. Citizens are not asked to support their votes with data or evidence, and there's no opportunity for debate among those with differing opinions. While limited in its scope, the system at least offers a small way for people to participate in governance.
The aggregated voting results are public, and the E-Citizenship team regularly shares them with parliamentary offices to ensure that citizen voices reach policymakers. To be clear, Senators are not obligated to vote in line with public consultation results. Instead, the system provides lawmakers with a pulse check from among the 15 million registered participants and the 34 million public votes
Challenges and Limitations
While the Public Consultation system has successfully engaged millions, the yes/no voting format can oversimplify complex issues. There's no opportunity to provide data, evidence, or informed opinions, and citizens may vote without understanding proposed legislation. The system also risks influence from coordinated campaigns by interest groups encouraging supporters to vote one way or another. Moreover, the non-binding nature of consultations means politicians can ignore results, potentially causing citizen frustration.
Upgrading Public Consultation with AI
AI and advanced technologies could dramatically improve citizen participation in the lawmaking process, enabling Brazil to enhance its system.
By combining AI-powered analysis with purposeful conversation design, Brazil could create a virtuous cycle where citizen input more directly informs legislative priorities.
Complex legislative language presents a barrier to participation. AI is already generating easy-to-understand bill summaries. Going further, AI could develop balanced explainers discussing potential impacts, pros, and cons in plain language. AI image generation could make this content more engaging through infographics or short videos, making legislation accessible to broader audiences.
AI models could simulate potential effects of proposed legislation on different demographics, regions, and sectors. Citizens could interact with these models to understand how a bill might affect them personally, their community, or the country as a whole.
A critical challenge identified by Jigsaw, Google's unit focusing on technology and human rights, is what they call the "last mile problem"—transforming citizen participation into actionable insights for institutions. They have been experimenting with using generative AI to write one-pagers with concrete takeaways about areas of agreement that could inform legislation and points of contention requiring further deliberation. Imagine if Brazil's Senate expanded beyond yes/no votes, using AI to synthesize citizen comments for Senators.
Brazil has an opportunity to redesign public consultation around more targeted questions that would generate directly useful input for lawmakers. By combining AI-powered analysis with purposeful conversation design, Brazil could create a virtuous cycle where citizen input more directly informs legislative priorities.
The e-Citizenship portal already requires registration, though voting remains anonymous. With AI, citizens could register their interests, and the system could match bill content to those interests, notifying people of pending legislation relevant to their concerns or communities. This personalized approach could increase engagement by connecting people with issues that matter to them.
For issues that transcend national boundaries—like climate change, internet governance, or global health—AI could facilitate cross-border citizen deliberation and collaboration. The system could aggregate global opinions, allowing Brazilian citizens to collaborate with counterparts in other countries on shared challenges. This acknowledges that many pressing issues require coordinated transnational responses informed by diverse global perspectives.
Through these enhancements, Brazil's already impressive citizen engagement system could become even more deliberative and impactful, setting an example for participatory democracy worldwide.
Brazil's model offers valuable lessons for democracies worldwide. In an era where many nations grapple with political polarization, declining trust in institutions, and a lack of political accountability, Brazil's approach provides a roadmap for revitalizing democratic participation.
The Way Forward: Reimagining Democracy for the Digital Age
As we’ve explored the Federal Senate of Brazil's four innovative mechanisms for online citizen engagement—the Legislative Idea, the Interactive Event, the Legislative Workshop, and Public Consultation—all poised to benefit from the integration of AI to improve their efficiency and effectiveness.
Brazil's model offers valuable lessons for democracies worldwide. In an era where many nations grapple with political polarization, declining trust in institutions, and a lack of political accountability, Brazil's approach provides a roadmap for revitalizing democratic participation.
It shows that with careful design, strong institutional support, and thoughtful integration of technology, it is possible to create more participatory and responsive democratic institutions and foster the kind of informed, engaged citizenry that healthy democracies require.
