Ireland’s presidential campaigns are notoriously bruising, a ritual of public shaming for things candidates said, did or might once have thought.
In such a charged environment, a degree of disinformation is inevitable. Foreign interference is increasingly plausible as external funding, smear campaigns, bots and strategic commentary have become familiar features of elections elsewhere.
Last year’s Romanian presidential election was annulled by the constitutional court due to extensive Russian interference.
In response, the European Union and democratic governments are working to address the threat by strengthening the powers of electoral commissions and media regulators while boosting support for media literacy, fact-checking and independent journalism.
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These are important developments, but they may fall short of the deeper democratic renewal that is needed.
Ultimately, it is ordinary people who defend democracy. When the legitimacy of a fair election is challenged or when a disinformation campaign gains traction, it is not enough for judges or officials to respond. It is everyday citizens who must speak up and reinforce democratic principles.
Citizen forums
So why don’t we harness the power of citizens to secure the integrity of elections?
Ireland’s citizens’ assemblies have already given citizens greater agency in important debates on topics such as abortion and gay marriage.
Citizen forums could address two key risks to the electoral process.
First is the need to provide voters with trustworthy, objective information, particularly in referendums.
The creation of the Electoral Commission was an important step forward, but it must tread carefully: informing voters without appearing to influence them.
In consequence, its campaigns risk being underwhelming and ineffective. There’s also the danger that its work will be dismissed as “government propaganda”, a familiar tactic used by conspiracy theorists.
One solution would be to give regular citizens a role in informing their fellow citizens about the issues they’ve been asked to vote on by establishing a “citizens’ referendum panel”.
Such a process is followed by the US state of Oregon in advance of its referendums.
A small group of randomly selected citizens from across the state is asked to scrutinise the referendum proposal and write a one-page summary of what it is about and the arguments for and against it.
This is then circulated to all voters in advance of polling day, who are informed that it has been drafted by fellow citizens.
Research shows that this has a positive impact on voters, who feel more knowledgeable and informed about the issues that they’ve been asked to vote on.
In an Irish variant, the Electoral Commission could include the panel’s one-page summary in the information packs it sends out to voters.
A second problem concerns how to react speedily and effectively to instances of mis- or disinformation during an election or referendum campaign.
For a body such as the Electoral Commission this presents a particularly difficult dilemma: how to correct a lie without being accused of being biased.
A core tension in tackling disinformation lies in the question of who gets to decide what counts as truth.
The public is right to question whether those decisions will be made fairly, transparently and without political bias. Citizens’ assemblies have already shown that ordinary people can assess facts, weigh evidence and reach thoughtful decisions.
During elections, a subset of citizens who have experience of being members of citizens’ referendum panels could be invited to join a “citizens’ campaign panel”, whose role is to react to disinformation with speed.
This proposal to give additional tasks to citizens who have prior experience of citizens’ assemblies builds on existing practice in one of the Belgian regions.
There are different options on how to service and support such a panel, but one way of doing it would be to have it housed within the Electoral Commission.
Preventing polarisation
So far, Ireland has been spared the kind of pernicious polarisation that has taken hold in other democracies.
Pernicious polarisation turns disagreement into hostility, dividing people into opposing camps that refuse to speak or work together.
In such contexts, trust collapses. Allegations of electoral fraud take root and confidence in officials and institutions evaporates.
To avoid this outcome, we need to consider what kind of participation sustains a healthy democracy and whether we are doing enough to support it.
Ireland is fortunate already to have a strong tradition of community engagement. We need to harness that before it is too late.
When false claims about elections and electoral issues spread in a community, the most effective defence often comes from within, from people who know the context, trust one another and can speak with credibility.
If we are serious about strengthening democracy from the ground up then we must invest in the spirit of civic participation that brings people together.
There are already some efforts to connect civic participation to governance.
Public Participation Networks were introduced in 2014 to build a network of community, social inclusion and environmental groups working within a local authority area.
These networks provide infrastructural support to community groups and ensure the voices of people on the ground are considered in local government decision-making.
This promising development is somewhat offset by the fact that Ireland has one of the weakest systems of local government in Europe.
Nonetheless, it shows that participatory structures can be embedded in our democratic institutions and that people are willing to engage when given meaningful opportunities to do so.
Treating citizens as passive actors won’t cut it in this battle against disinformation and foreign interference. It is paternalistic and self-defeating.
If democracy is to prevail then the voice of citizens as active participants needs to be front and centre.
Dr Eileen Culloty is an assistant professor in the school of communications and deputy director of the DCU Institute for Media, Democracy and Society. Professor David Farrell holds the chair of politics at University College Dublin
