From Bills to Bytes: Computational Analyses of National and International Deliberations and Decisions

December 12th and 13th, 2024 | Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)

From Bills to Bytes

Organizers: Florian Cafiero (PSL) and Marie Puren (EPITA)

In an era where digital transformation is reshaping the landscape of governance and international relations, the "From Bills to Bytes" workshop presents a timely exploration into the digitization and computational analysis of parliamentary and international organizations' data. This two-days workshop aims to bring together academics, data scientists, and policymakers to delve into the challenges and opportunities presented by the digital revolution in the public sector.

It will attempt to bridge two emerging and increasingly dynamic fields of research. Ongoing efforts in developing a “computational diplomacy” (Cafiero 2023; Wernli 2023; Wernli et al. 2023) and computational humanities projects about parliamentary data are giving more and more impressive results (Ihalainen, Janssen, Marjanen and Vaara 2022; Puren and Pellet 2023; Hyvönen, Leskinen, et Rantala 2023; Erjavec et Pančur 2021), but have mostly gone their separate ways. Yet, international negotiations have regularly been presented as "two-level games” (Bjola et Manor 2018; Da Conceição-Heldt 2013; Mo 1994) following Putnam classical observation (Putnam 2017): building an international agreement first relies on a game occurring at the international level, where representatives of different countries negotiate with each other; but a second "game" inevitably happens within each country involved in the international negotiations. Domestic groups (like political parties, interest groups, and the general public) have their own interests and preferences regarding the international agreement. Comprehensively studying international disputes without also analyzing their domestic echos in relevant national contexts means providing only a partial picture of multilateral negotiations. But succeeding in such a massive task has been very hard to realize, at least without the help that artificial intelligence can provide to systematically explore the vast quantity of documents necessary to capture the two arenas of interaction.

Our focus is twofold: the workshop will first of all spotlight the advanced computational techniques used to analyze political decisions and national or international legislations. Machine learning, natural language processing, and big data analytics in general are unveiling new insights into legislative processes and international policy-making. But the availability of the data necessary for those analyses is not always guaranteed, despite increasing calls and means for making such data public. We will thus examine the processes and technologies driving the digitization of parliamentary records and international organization databases. This involves a comprehensive look at the methodologies for converting vast repositories of legislative documents, debates, and resolutions into accessible digital formats.

Participants will engage in keynote speeches and panel discussions led by experts in the fields of political science, cultural heritage, and international relations. These sessions are designed to foster a rich dialogue on topics such as the ethical considerations in data handling, the impact of data-driven decision-making on policy effectiveness, and the future of AI in governance.

The Climate Change Obstruction track

Organizers: Florian Cafiero (PSL) and Ian Gray (Columbia University)

Thanks to the generous support of the Climate Social Science Network, we organize a parallel track focusing on a specific application of computational diplomacy: the international negotiations regarding climate change policies at the United Nations (UNFCC). The productions of this track will illustrate the possibilities and challenges of the emerging field of computational diplomacy.

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