E-democracy Or E-Domination? Critical Observations Of One E-Democracy Tool In A Local Governance Institution In Lithuania (original) (raw)
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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.
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 ...
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.
Electronic Participation in the Policy Making Process: A Case Study
sobiad.org
The purpose of this paper is to analyze e-participation level of municipalities in Ankara in regards to political participation by the method of web-site analyses. E-Participation is being regarded as a new and favored model for governing process. Recent developments in information and communication technologies bring about some innovations in the area of political participation in democratic systems. E-Voting as a new method in e-election process is one of these innovations in the area of political participation (Smith et al., 2003). E-Participation is also one of the parts of e-democracy subjects which come by depending on the improvements in information and communication technologies. Nowadays e-participation in relation to the notions of citizenship and democracy is being seen as a means to cause positive effects in citizens' participation in the political and managerial processes (Komito, 2005). It is thought that eparticipation will be effective in democratic participations' being more and more widespread in every part of the society. E-Participation provides new opportunities from the viewpoint of political participation: it provides political decree more individually on the core level which is different from the traditional political behavior consisting of institutionalized political parties and periodical elections. E-Participation is also significant in the process of the realization of accountability, transparency and participation in terms of governance (OECD, 2003). E-Participation leads to new opportunities such as citizen's active participation in policy making process. This active participation makes the relationship both among citizens and between citizens and authorities more effective (Alonso, 2009). In this respect; e-participation comes out as a highly
E-Democracy from the Perspective of Local Elected Members
International Journal of Electronic Government Research, 2000
Although efforts for developing e-democracy have been underway for over a decade, recent literature indicates that its uptake by citizens and Elected Members (EMs) is still very low. This paper explores the underlying reasons for why this is so from the perspective of local EMs in the context of UK local authorities. It draws on findings reported in earlier works supplemented with primary case study data. Findings are interpreted through the lens of Giddens structuration theory, which assists in drawing out issues related to three dimensions of human agency: communication of meaning, exercising power and sanctioning behaviour. The paper abstracts categories of agency from the findings and uses these to formulate eight propositions for creating an e-friendly democratic culture and enhancing EMs uptake of e-democracy. These propositions provide an indication for future e-democracy research direction.
EVALUATING THE QUALITY OF E-DEMOCRACY PROCESSES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN THE GREEK CONTEXT
A significant number of studies have appeared on how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have a strong impact on e-democracy, which, in a few words, is the online citizen engagement and participation in public policy making. However, only few studies focus on the aspect of quality in edemocracy. This paper aims to raise questions on how e-democracy processes are perceived by the citizens and define the main characteristics of quality in an edemocracy system. Answering these questions will contribute to the identification of topics and issues that have to be prioritized in an e-democracy service delivery system. Based on our literature review, a four-dimensional framework is used to evaluate quality of e-democracy processes. This framework comprises the following dimensions: coordination, control, sharing, and transparency. Coordination is the capability of public agencies to combine their efforts in order to accomplish the delivery of their services to citizens. Control refers to how the activation and delivery of e-democracy services are controlled. By the term sharing we mean the way in which the public agencies handle and share citizens' data with other agencies. Finally, transparency is the ability of public agencies to increase citizens' trust in them. The framework is validated through an empirical research conducted among Greek citizens. Using confirmatory Principal Component Analysis, our findings reveal that the sixteen quality characteristics we selected indeed comprise the four dimensions of the aforementioned framework. Additionally, the benefits of e-democracy and the obstacles to enhance its quality are identified and analyzed.
Electronic democracy: a Concept under Construction
Representative democracy remains essentially a representative government that was created precisely to avoid all the citizens to participate directly in political decision-making. Implementation of direct participation’s instruments in the form of e-democracy creates a conflict within this government, a conflict that can be solved only by a renewal of representative democracy concept, even its substitution by another idea committed to reconciling representation and participation. This paper aims a reflection on a legal concept of government capable of integrating e-democracy. Such integration highlights the interdependent character of the link between democracy and human rights that are exposed to very new threats in the digital era. The possibility to introduce e-democracy is conditional upon the reinforced protection of such digital rights and freedoms as well as recognition of new rights based on personal self-determination.
E-Democracy: Conceptual Foundations and Recent Trends
Studies in Digital Politics and Governance, 2019
Lindner and Aichholzer provide an introductory overview of the theoretical and conceptual foundations of electronic democracy, thereby providing analytical insights on the interplay between Internet-based communication and democratic processes. To this end, different normative views, aims and approaches of e-democracy are presented and systematically related to the central tenets of the main models of democracy. As e-participation plays an essential role in most conceptions of e-democracy, a typology of Internet-based citizen involvement is developed, thereby structuring the diversity of e-participation practices. Given the growing relevance of Web 2.0 and social media, the chapter discusses to which degree they are able to support core democratic functions of public communication-namely public critique, legitimation, and integration-by exploring the effects of social media usage on the quality of deliberation, political activism and political behaviour. In view of phenomena such as "personalised politics", echo chambers and deliberate misinformation, the authors call for effective political, educational and regulatory responses to the democratic challenges social media increasingly pose. 2.1 Organisation and Theoretical Framework This chapter provides an introductory overview of the basic concepts, which will be applied in the ensuing chapters of this volume. This includes a brief introduction of the key characteristics of liberal, participatory and deliberative democracy, with the aim of providing conceptual orientation regarding the different concepts of e-democracy that will be dealt with in greater detail in this book. A comprehensive account and discussion of the rich political and theoretical debates on democracy is
Is E-Democracy a Myth? Civic Participation and Democratic Reform
emphasise that e-democracy should not be separated from the everyday operations of government. While online democratic engagement is a slowly evolving process, initial steps are being undertaken by governments that enable e-participation to shape democratic reform.