E-participation System: Leveraging Blockchain Technology to Enhance Democratic Engagement

This research aims to build an e-participation system for the citizens in the public policy process using blockchain technology. E-participation makes it easier for citizens to have a say in important policy decisions and helps the government be more open, inclusive, collaborative, and thoughtful. It improves government transparency, citizen involvement, and marginalized group inclusion. Yet, the limited scope of existing e-participation approaches and implementation processes makes using e-participation ineffective. E-participation platforms for citizen-government engagement often fail to meet targets and uptake expectations. In addition, the challenges involve overcoming the constraints associated with current methods, guaranteeing transparency, security, and privacy when engaging citizens, and effectively managing the intricate process of integrating various components and handling confidential information. However, blockchain applications are gaining popularity because blockchain technology can change the way how businesses operate. This study offers a blockchain-based innovative e-participation system to increase democratic engagement in a secure and decentralized environment as centralized servers struggle with transparency, security, and privacy concerns. Decentralized, immutable, and incorruptible blockchain technology solves these challenges. The proposed e-participation system can encourage public participation in governance and promote democracy. The proposed E-participation is based on a model that includes government agencies, the public/citizens, digital platforms, decision-making, communication/feedback, and decision-making. This research uses national population data and election codes and regulations to run experiments and simulation models. Process simulation will develop and build the e-participation system's software, hardware, and storage devices. The proposed four layers of blockchain-based e-participation are integrated. They have their purposes, which include government agencies, registration and verification, a blockchain-based e-participation network, and data storage.