On 14 December 2018, Synopia held its first Rencontres du renouveau démocratique at the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris. Émile Servan-Schreiber participated in the fourth panel, which asked how far democratic renewal should push innovation. His same-day reshare of Alexandre Malafaye’s account records the panel and its participants; Synopia’s official programme independently confirms the event and session.
An institutional setting for collective intelligence
The programme locates the colloquium in the Salle Médicis, under the patronage of Senator Marta de Cidrac, with former president François Hollande scheduled to give the morning introduction. Synopia framed the event as a review of democratic renewal following the 2017 presidential campaign, focusing on trust, governance and constitutional reform. The agenda put institutional reform alongside the ways citizens could contribute to public life.
The fourth panel was scheduled for 16:00. Alongside Servan-Schreiber, listed as a collective-intelligence specialist, were Aurore Bimont, co-founder of Système D, an incubator of Démocratie Ouverte; Axel Dauchez, founder of make.org; and Jacky Isabello, co-founder of Coriolink. Jean-Philippe Moinet, founder and director of Revue Civique, was the moderator.
The question Servan-Schreiber brought
In a 28 November invitation, Servan-Schreiber said he looked forward to presenting new ideas at the panel. His 5 December follow-up made the connection to Supercollectif explicit. He asked:
Comment augmenter le Q.I. de notre démocratie ?
Émile Servan-Schreiber, LinkedIn, 5 December 2018
In our translation: How can we raise the IQ of our democracy? He said he would present ideas from the book. His December invitation connected the panel’s institutional question with the book’s focus on how distributed knowledge becomes a useful shared judgement.
Collective judgement in democratic institutions
The panel placed collective judgement inside a discussion of democratic institutions. For forecasting, that raises a practical question: how could public decisions make better use of distributed knowledge? Servan-Schreiber’s question shifts attention from the abilities of individual leaders to the process through which a political system hears, weighs and combines different contributions.
The later Brussels Democracy Lab account explores the relationship between governing and forecasting more directly. The 2018 Senate meeting offered an earlier setting for that connection, alongside other approaches to civic participation. No transcript of the panel’s specific proposals has been verified. The stated book connection nevertheless explains why a collective-intelligence specialist joined a discussion about democratic innovation.
