Crowdsourcing of Iceland's new constitution

The Icelandic Constitution Drafting Committee called on citizens to help write the document. They opened a page on Facebook , where everyone can express their opinion on the draft document, and these changes will be made to the text. Project news is broadcast via Twitter , Youtube and Flickr .

Thus, the new Icelandic constitution will be the first in the world drawn up with the help of crowdsourcing, that is, the collective efforts of citizens of the country.

It is noteworthy that they do not invite people to write comments on their state website, but integrate the legislative process into the structure of popular social networks like Facebook, because people are much more comfortable. The result was not long in coming - the Facebook page is already full of comments not only from Icelanders, but also from citizens of other countries who also want to help.

Of course, not everyone makes a useful contribution, there are a lot of trolling on the pages on social networks, but the moderators try to keep the conversation within the framework of a constructive debate. Facebook administrators comment on some controversial statements and clarify legal issues.

The current Icelandic constitution is almost completely copied from the Danish, since Iceland gained independence from Denmark relatively recently - in 1944. Only cosmetic changes were made to the text of the document (the "king" was replaced by the "president", etc.). Of course, the two countries are very different from each other, which should be reflected in the constitution. For example, in Iceland there is a very small population (320 thousand people) with inexhaustible sources of geothermal energy. Thus, Iceland may well allow itself to include in the constitution a long list of social guarantees. In 2007, the United Nations declared Iceland the best country to live in the world.

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