This research draws on the CrowdLaw concept and the affordances framework to inquire how Senador Virtual, a technological innovation in the Chilean Senate, could contribute to creating more democratic processes and outcomes, and consequently, whether the platform promoted or enabled more equality in decision-making processes and better citizen engagement. Based on a mixed-methods approach of statistical analysis, interviews, and a digital ethnography, we studied the 16-year-old web platform. Our research shows that the platform gave rise to five latent democratic affordances which are not always fully leveraged. Of these, three had already been discussed within the CrowdLaw literature: (1) capture a variety of viewpoints; (2) generate insights that illuminate the lawmaking process; and (3) serve as a device for communication between citizens and senators. Notwithstanding, we also found two additional affordances not normally attributed to CrowdLaw: (4) create a civilized public forum; and (5) foster civility among the users that engage with it. We suggest that in order for these affordances to be fully leveraged, the CrowdLaw process must be designed to complement traditional lawmaking processes, including a reliable methodology for processing citizen input. Only when the above is accomplished, will this technological facilitator produce actual democratic outcomes.

这项研究借鉴了CrowdLaw概念和可负担性框架，以询问Senador Virtual如何智利参议院的一项技术创新，可能有助于创造更多的民主进程和成果，因此，该平台是否促进或实现了决策过程中的更多平等以及更好的公民参与。基于统计分析，访谈和数字人种学的混合方法，我们研究了具有16年历史的Web平台。我们的研究表明，该平台产生了五种潜在的民主能力，但这些能力并不总是得到充分利用。其中，在CrowdLaw文献中已经讨论了三种：（1）捕获各种观点；（2）产生启发性的见解，以阐明立法过程；（3）作为公民与参议员之间交流的工具。尽管如此，我们还发现了通常不归因于CrowdLaw的另外两个附加功能：（四）创建文明的公众论坛；（5）在与之互动的用户中树立文明。我们建议，为了充分利用这些能力，必须设计CrowdLaw流程以补充传统的立法流程，包括处理公民意见的可靠方法。只有完成上述任务，此技术协助人员才能产生实际的民主结果。