What it is

DemocracyOS is an open-source JavaScript platform for online deliberation and voting on political proposals. It lives in the civic collaboration ecosystem, specifically under Community & Social and Collaboration & Feedback, and it is released under the GPL-3.0 license. The project describes itself as an online space for deliberation and voting, aimed at more open and participatory government.

The concrete problem it addresses is the difficulty of collecting structured public input on policy decisions. Instead of leaving discussion only in general social media or offline meetings, DemocracyOS gives a dedicated place for political proposals, arguments, polls, and votes. The README says the software aims to stimulate better arguments and better rulings among peers, which points to a workflow where participants can discuss proposals and then register a decision.

Key capabilities

• The project supports deliberation on political proposals, as stated in the README and topic list.
• It supports voting and poll-related workflows, based on the topics poll and voting.
• It supports decision-making processes, as indicated by the topic decision-making.
• It supports democratic participation tools, as indicated by the topics democracy and democracyos.
• It runs as a self-hosted instance, because the README points users to an Installation wiki page for setting up an instance.
• It supports real browsers and Internet Explorer 10 or newer, according to the README browser support section.
• It operates as open-source software under GPL-3.0, with a public GitHub repository and a documentation site.

Who uses it and how

• Governments and activists in Latin America use or work with DemocracyOS implementations, according to the description from Democracia en Red.
• Political groups can run an official deployment, as shown by DemocracyOS - PDR, described as The Net Party's official deployment.
• Civic initiatives can use it to discuss legislation, as shown by EuVoto, an Open Knowledge Foundation Brasil initiative for discussing legislation in Sao Paulo.
• Municipal or public bodies can use it for structured consultation, as shown by the Paris deployment and the PAMI deployment that opens technical decisions for a healthcare program.
• Activist or advocacy groups can use it for specific policy debates, as shown by Loi Renseignement and Ukrainian Choice deployments.

Getting started

The README directs users to the DemocracyOS Installation wiki page for detailed instructions on installing and setting up an instance. The README does not list a package manager, Docker image, or hosted option.

When to use it — and when not to

Use DemocracyOS when a group needs a self-hosted, open-source space for proposal discussion, polling, and voting within a civic participation workflow. Do not use it if the project's current maintenance status is a blocker, because the README says DemocracyOS is currently without maintenance and more information will be published soon. Self-hosters must operate the application themselves and accept browser support limited to real browsers and Internet Explorer 10 or newer.