The Legal Basis of Citizen Electronic Participation in Poland (original) (raw)

E-Democracy and E-Tools of citizen participation on local level in Poland

Central and Eastern European eDem and eGov Days, 2022

The development of information and communication technologies (ICT) brought many changes in various areas of human life. Also, democracy is being influenced by the use of electronic communication technologies, such as the Internet. ICT’s impact on democracy and participation has led to the emergence of specific tools that allow citizens to use electronic tools of political participation. The use of technology in politics is a fascinating example of interaction between technology, public policy and also public opinion. How the law and society respond to advanced technology is worthy of study, particularly in countries, where e-tools of people’s participation are becoming more and more popular among certain groups of political actors. The application of information and communication technologies in political decision-making processes in Poland is relatively new phenomenon – we may say that it has been observed for not more than 15 years. This paper will analyze Polish local practices ...

Political communication in the EU: Civic potential of new media (case study: Poland

Th e aim of the paper is to present empirical fi ndings on political communication in the European Union, elaborating especially on the engagement of Polish citizens and participatory democracy in this part of Central and Eastern Europe. Drawing on Peter Dahlgren's approach to media and political engagement, the study concerns the development of EU civic cultures. Content analysis of the " Debate Europe " online discussion forum and the European Commission's Facebook pages allowed the evaluation of EU citizens' diverse practices concerning the European elections in 2009 and 2014. Th e internet has changed models of political participation. It plays an important role in the communication between EU institutions and EU citizens. It enables citizens to contribute to the European communicative space, even if the described process is asymmetric, dominated to a large extent by Brussels. New forms of civic involvement and less formal types of participation can be identifi ed.

Attitudes of Polish voters towards introduction of e-voting in the context of political factors 1

Despite the lack of legal basis, electronic voting has been present in the public discourse in Poland for over ten years. This can be seen in particular before parliamentary, presidential, local or European elections. Then, political parties, while trying to raise their election capital, declare their willingness to implement innovative methods of voting (e.g. i-voting) in elections to make the election process more convenient for those entitled to vote. Parties assume that this can mobilize the part of the electorate which typically does not utilize their universal suffrage. The main objective of this article is to analyze and explain to what degree (and to what extent) political preferences may affect the choice made by voters, provided it is possible to have electronic voting as a method of their participation in elections. We ask the question: if the voters' opinion on evoting correlates with the opinions of the political parties for which they are voting. While looking for the answer to this question, the authors have assumed that there is a relationship between the political variable such as the preference and opinions on the use of modern forms of voting. To verify this diagnosis, we make a statistical analysis of the data coming from a survey implemented between March and May 2018 in Poland. Research findings lead to a general conclusion that political preferences are a statistically significant predicator for voters' attitudes towards the introduction and use of voting over the Internet.

Khutkyy, Dmytro. 2019. “E-Participation Waves: A Reflection on the Baltic and the Eastern European Cases.” Pp. 197-203. in Proceedings of Ongoing Research, Practitioners, Posters, Workshops, and Projects of the International Conference EGOV-CeDEM-ePart 2019.

E-participation often experiences rise and decline, thereby the study aims to identify causes and outcomes of e-activism upturns. The research is based on expert interviews, content analysis, and self-reported statistics. It became evident that the studied European countries Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania follow different trajectories, but still reveal common patterns. In particular, election campaigns, political and economic crises, and new policies can facilitate e-participation, which can institutionalize, frame an agenda, draft a policy proposal, and lead to a policy change or a government change.

E-Participation tools and their use in the Moravian‑Silesian Region

XXII. mezinárodní kolokvium o regionálních vědách, Velké Bílovice, 12.–14. června 2019, 2019

Publikace neprošla jazykovou úpravou. / Publication is not a subject of language check. Za správnost obsahu a originalitu výzkumu zodpovídají autoři. / Authors are fully responsible for the content and originality of the articles.

Polish Mass Media Coverage and Public Opinion on E-democracy

2021

The rapid development of new technologies and their impressive communication capacity has fundamentally changed modern democracy by providing easy and universal access to information, as well as increasing participation and accessibility of political involvement tools. One of the electoral participation tools is e-voting which has been used in only a few countries. The main aim of the paper is to explore whether and how e-voting has been presented in Polish mass media (1), as well as to investigate people’s opinions about e-voting against certain political factors (2). The research is based on a media content analysis (quantitative and qualitative), data collected via the Content Analysis System for Television (CAST) and a quantitative analysis of data from a survey conducted by the authors (2018, sample: 1717 Poles). The results of the analyses show that the debate on the implementation of e-voting is rather poor, but the support for e-voting among Poles remains considerable. The p...

E-democracy Or E-Domination? Critical Observations Of One E-Democracy Tool In A Local Governance Institution In Lithuania

Santalka: Filosofija, Komunikacija, 2014

Drawing on critical considerations of the so called "electronic democracy", the paper empirically explores to what extent the internet tools provided by the local governance institutions in the course of electronic democracy are enabling the expression of the "voices of citizens" as well as participation in decision making. Content analysis of questions and answers stemming from the official webpage of one Lithuanian municipality has been conducted; altogether, the sample entails 310 questions or suggestions of citizens and answers from the municipality. The results show that participation of citizens via internet-based voice opportunities represents a trivialization of participation issues by mainly constructing the citizens as complain-holders about everyday issues. Participation by influencing political decisions could not be obtained.