Democracy faces a fundamental design challenge and opportunity.   

In a world marked by unprecedented disruptions to the global order – from the erosion of liberal norms to increasingly weaponised digital spaces – democracy faces a twin imperative. Externally, it must withstand growing threats to civic space and information integrity that jeopardise both national security and international stability, especially from illicit influence operations (the "missiles of cyberspace”). Internally, it must confront declining public trust, rising voter apathy, and the urgent need to deliver visibly and fairly for citizens. To meet these challenges, democracies need to modernise both their defences and their delivery. Like any social technology, democracy must embrace innovation and evolve to remain relevant and resilient in a rapidly changing world.

Digital technologies are now part of that evolution, presenting both significant opportunities and substantial threats to open societies – especially artificial intelligence (AI). Emerging technologies hold the potential to undermine liberal democracy by fuelling disinformation and distrust, enabling surveillance and eroding human rights. On the other hand, they hold promise to build civic fibre and restore confidence in public institutions by improving political participation and strengthening oversight. At Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), we’ve spent the past year asking a fundamental question: how can digital technologies support democratic resilience, transformation and impact?

Our latest learning paper with Tech Governance Advisor Seyi Akiwowo draws on WFD’s research and experience of testing digital technologies across a range of contexts for this purpose. Our pilot projects and programmes have included using mobile voting systems to improve political party inclusion in Kenya, testing if AI visualisation tools can strengthen civic engagement in municipal planning consultations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and exploring if AI could support with scraping the web (including news archives, Supreme and Appeal Court cases, Parliamentary reports, and more) and compiling a public wiki with profiles of major candidates in Sri Lanka’s Parliamentary Elections. We’re also developing a smart public procurement system in North Macedonia that uses machine learning and AI to scrutinise documents, identify corruption, and help train officials, as well as supporting whole-of-society responses to build democratic resilience to information operations in Taiwan. The lessons are clear: when digital approaches are grounded in trust, political insight, and human-centred design, they can unlock new pathways for democratic renewal. But without these foundations, technology risks reinforcing exclusion and control.

Our experience underscores that effective digital support for democracy must be strategic, values-driven, and developed iteratively in close partnerships to ensure relevance to democratic institutions and processes. Drawing on these insights and aligned with priorities for democratic development, we distil 5 key lessons for leveraging digital technology to support democratic resilience, transformation and impact:

1. Champion citizen agency and address problems through a rights-based lens. Digital interventions must be grounded in the real needs, rights, and inherent dignity of citizens. Effective digital strategies do not start with technology, but with understanding the specific democratic or human rights challenges faced by people and communities. Integrating digital support into broader efforts that build trust, empower local actors, and foster genuine community engagement is essential. This also means approaching accessibility as a fundamental design principle. WFD’s experience with piloting initiatives like a mobile voting system in Kenya for internal political party elections demonstrated how technology can lower barriers to participation for party members, including marginalised groups. In a mock election conducted in Nakuru West Constituency (Kaptembwa Ward), over 50% of party members contacted through the integrated voting system participated – a staggering increase on the usual c. 5% participation.  However, it also highlighted that addressing the digital divide remains crucial for ensuring equitable access and political inclusion, echoing the need to champion equal rights for all.
2. Forge strategic partnerships that support locally driven efforts to build and defend democratic spaces. Success in the digital sphere, much like in broader human rights and governance work, hinges on collaboration. WFD’s most successful partnerships brought together digital and governance expertise to form effective digital democracy partnerships characterised by continued, open collaboration across institutions, civil society, and technology providers. We created space to troubleshoot issues frankly and collectively and found civic tech organisations are well-positioned to solve pressing democratic challenges, offering insights and additional opportunities to build civic muscle and defend democratic space that WFD could not deliver alone. For example, WFD´s partnership with Watchdog in Sri Lanka was critical for identifying, testing, and integrating the digital tools required to develop the wiki (see Persons of Interest), as well as reviewing the accuracy of the content and ensuring it reached the right networks.
3. Embrace adaptability to counter evolving threats and strengthen resilience. Digital work in democracy support is a dynamic process. Successful programmes require the capacity to work iteratively, troubleshoot in real-time, and adapt alongside partners. Embedding developer expertise early is key for navigating technical issues and evolving tools based on user needs. This flexibility is essential for building resilient systems that can adapt to a fast-changing digital landscape that may involve new legal requirements of digital threats. In Kenya, Sri Lanka, North Macedonia and Taiwan, remaining adaptable and working closely with our digital partners to test and refine digital tools has been critical to success. For example, in North Macedonia WFD and Blink 42-21 embraced a flexible development approach, working closely with the State Audit Office and several municipalities to pilot and improve key features of the smart public procurement system. This helped to ensure it meets user needs whilst also informing the system´s modular architecture, allowing for future updates in line with evolving legal standards, meaning the system is well placed to help fight corruption into the long term.
4. Integrate digital technologies into broader strategies to build trust and relationships. Digital approaches should not operate in isolation but function as part of wider strategies aimed at building trust and strengthening the relationship between citizens and democratic institutions. As trust is foundational for citizen engagement and democratic legitimacy, effective programming involves supporting local skills and ensuring digital tools are developed with users, incorporating early and ongoing input. For example, WFD’s existing relationships with political parties in Kenya was vital for opening space to discuss the limitations and opportunities offered by the mobile voting system, which opened the door to consultations with party members. Likewise, in North Macedonia, working closely with the State Audit Office has ensured the procurement system meets strict data security requirements, reinforcing users’ perceived value of the system. The lesson: digital tools can be powerful engines to promote transparency and accountability, especially when discussed openly to ensure these meet individuals’ or institutions’ needs.
5. Govern emerging technologies with a values-led, human rights approach centred in building coalitions. Emerging technologies like AI present significant opportunities but also pose substantial threats to human rights and democratic integrity. We must ensure that human rights and governance principles are embedded in the use of new technologies. Effectively managing these risks while harnessing AI's potential requires a democratic, values-led approach grounded in principles like human dignity, privacy, fairness, equity, and non-discrimination. Parliaments have a critical role to play in governing AI to safeguard democratic principles, but to perform this role also requires modernisation, commitment to ethical principles, effective human oversight, and robust data policies. WFD’s Guidelines for AI in Parliaments can support this. Additionally, countering threats amplified by AI, such as information manipulation, requires investing in trusted cross-border partnerships and coalitions of purpose to share resources, develop common strategies, and increase cooperation. In short, a progressive realist approach, which WFD sets out in our recent policy paper.  

In summary, if democracies are to leverage recent advances in digital technology to revive democratic health, restore trust in institutions and defend fundamental rights and freedoms, it’s vital we follow a strategic, people-centred, collaborative, and values-driven approach. UNDP’s Human Development Report 2025 urges policymakers to ‘depart from disempowering trends that sideline most people’ and invest in complementary human and technological development. In practice, this means trying to imagine alternatives to prevailing data economies and information ecosystems, data surveillance, and top-down data governance. It also means resisting algorithms designed to capture attention with little regard for their impact on civic participation and online behaviour. Without this, digital technologies risk disrupting economies and societies, deepening polarisation, and reinforcing political exclusion and distrust in liberal political systems. In a rapidly changing digital world, learning from experience and sharing insights that strengthen collective action by international partners will be vital for navigating this new frontier successfully. WFD’s latest learning paper is a contribution to this effort.