Electronic participatory budgeting (e-PPB): increasing people participation in the decision-making process (original) (raw)
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ELECTRONIC GOVERNANCE AND DEMOCRACY
Democracy does not enjoy the world of good health, as it has ever enjoyed in the past, but it is not on the verge of grave" 1. These words are from the Italian master Norberto Bobbio, who, after this first part, states that "for a democratic regime, the constant transformation is your natural state: the democracy is dynamic, the despotism is static and always equal to itself " 2. According to this idea, this article was written in order to show, objectively, that with the advent of the new Information and Communication Technologies – ICT's –, appears the possibility of creating brand new democratic institutions, imagined from the direct participation of citizens in politics through the using of new technologies 3 , especially the Internet. It also shows that, due to the new electronic technology infrastructure, provided by networked computers and by a plenty number of communication devices and organization, storage and delivery of data and online information, appears the Electronic Democracy 4 , a new concept resulting from this modern era of computing.
idt.mdh.se
Recently the impressive growth of the Web, and the Internet in general, has been considered as a promise that may both challenge and boost our representation of democratic institutions. It is well known that modern democracies are based on the possibility to control and even replace who rules by the force of the best arguments. More generally, the control of the government, and the effectiveness of democracy, is possible, if the citizens can access information. Hence, the promise of the Internet mainly relies on the fact that people may more freely access information, because it seems it cannot be controlled or manipulated by the political power.
E-Democracy and Information Society
2019 Sixth International Conference on eDemocracy & eGovernment (ICEDEG), 2019
The rapid development of the technological media and the improvement of communication have turned the world into a "global village". This term was claimed by the scientist Marshal McLaren, who predicted future development of the world into a global system. As a village, the world becomes smaller with interdependence and interstate relations. This dependence is expressed both economically and socially. A period of globalization is characterized by the recognition of new global issues, such as global warming, natural disasters, the struggle against poverty and others. These problems require humanity to cooperate in an international framework. However, the recognition itself does not provide the solutions to these problems, and despite the technological and social connections on the Internet, we are still witnesses to government methods that based on concepts and technologies from the previous centuries. Modern nation states that based on cumbersome mechanisms of government and decision making, cannot cope with the challenges they face in the technological age. Making decisions in its institutions are slow with a problem to create cooperation (even when there is apparently a common interest). All of these reasons lead to a large gap between government institutions and technological development. One of the most prominent solutions that are supposed to bridge this gap is the combination of advanced communication technology with government concepts. This tool is called digital democracy or e-democracy. That study requires qualitative research based on a thorough distinction of the subject. The study needs to review various theories from the subject of the social and political sciences, humanities, economics, and law with linkage to the resent technological development and new management possibilities. It is important to note that a solution to the problems I have presented before, is not easy and unequivocal. The use of technology and communication is also connected to many various dangers such as terrorism, fundamentalism, and moral nihilism. Therefore, in the one hand, an accurate distinction and in-depth research are needed to help identify the weaknesses of contemporary liberal democracy in order to strengthen them, from the other hand and preserve the strengths and mechanisms that are supposed to swallow the formation of anarchy.
Computer Mediated Participation. ICTs as instruments for democracy
According to the OECD, the active participation of citizens is “regarded as a relation based on partnership with government, in which citizens actively engage in defining the process and content of policy-making”. This is seen as a new frontier for citizen engagement, which places demands on government behaviour, but also requires that citizens accept a high level of responsibility, since participation rights come with duties. The spread and development of new information technologies was not irrelevant to the growing interest in these matters. As had happened before with other media, the ICTs increased hope towards the possibility to overcome the problems regarding efficiency and political equality in participation, obstacles to more participatory democracies. Nevertheless, some care is needed so that democracy does not become more vulnerable. Besides all the issues connected with the digital divide (including low literacy levels), other representativity problems must be considered, namely the tendency for people with extreme positions to participate more and theirs efforts to manipulate instances of participation. On the other hand, there has to be genuine political will towards participatory politics for trust to be built and for these initiatives to have positive results. Focusing on the main points here presented, in this paper I propose to discuss the connection between a recent stronger promotion of citizen participation and the Internet as a new medium for communication between State and citizens.
Direct Democracy and Its Tools in the Face of Use of New Technologies
Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska, 2018
Given the dynamic development of the new media, in particular the Internet, the social, economic and cultural fields of modern life are undergoing changes as well as many others. New technologies have also had an impact on political and civil activities. Direct democracy and its tools are subjects of changes resulting from the development of new technologies. The consequence of ICT impact on direct democracy is appearing a notion of "electronic (or digital) direct democracy". The electronic form of direct governance has ICT-based tools of exercising power that are or can be used by citizens as an instrument for co-participating in shaping political life and decisions. These considerations aim to answer the question of how the use of the Internet can influence modern democracy, in particular the direct form of governance. The author intends to answer the following research questions: how are the instruments of direct democracy, such as referenda, popular initiative and popular assembly (and, by this token, direct democracy) changing (or how they might change) following the application of the Internet or other ICTs? What opportunities and threats might ICTs employed in direct democracy bring for democracy, authorities and society?
Democracy, essential element of the electronic government
Corr, 2010
This paper emphasizes a determinant aim of identifying different approaches, as comparing to the education and democracy ways specific to e-government system. Introducing the information technology should offer the possibility by which reform processes of the government should become more efficient, transparent and much more public for the citizens; in this way, their ability of participating directly to government activities should prove the carrying out of a democratic and free frame. One of the essential issues of such phenomenon is that of proving that adopting the information and communication technology programs to government process or electronic government depends upon a series of external factors, such as the level of state's development, the cultural level, the frame of developing the structures of central and local public authority, criteria that differentiate the applicability of such system, to various countries. This difference is especially seen as comparing to the East states of European Union. Information systems can be applied in order to allow the citizens to monitor and coordinate the providing of local services; such exchanges have created trust and the feeling of influence, encouraging the participation to political life. Carrying into effect the new informational technologies, aiming to issuing, informing and to participation of citizens to political life, will model the concept of democracy within a new frame.
Democracy and the Internet: Emerging Lessons for the 21st Century Public Sphere
The 54th Annual Conference of the Political Studies …, 2004
The discussion on new media and democracy has traditionally taken place within two binary oppositions: between 'optimists' and 'pessimists', and between the paradigm of technological determinism as a whole and the model of 'reinforcement'. Despite their contributions, these paradigms make an artificial distinction between technology and human agency in an attempt to calculate the net effect of the Internet on democracy. In so doing, they either reduce reality to the means or they completely strip politics of the means' impact. Recent models of 'acceleration', 'amplification' and 'institution building' take into account both pre-existing tendencies and technological change and raise a different set of questions that can help us understand and manage change. Conflicting phenomena emerge across the board affecting access, nationality, control, identity and voice. The complexity and the scale of the 21 st century public sphere mean that political decisions need to be taken in order to realise the opportunities and face the challenges facilitated by the Internet.