The effect of new technologies on civic participation models

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.

The new ICTs, especially e-participation tools and techniques, are promoted by different authorities and policymakers as an invaluable feature of contemporary society and conceived as improving society. This paper addresses e-participation as a governmental technology of citizenship through which the citizen's involvement and collaboration in policymaking and other political processes is called upon and enhanced. E-participation is interpreted as a way of managing human conduct at a collective and individual level that has provided a process for rearranging the exercise of political power.

1996

This paper explores the claims of technology's ability to enhance citizen participation, with particular attention focused on the Internet. The claims are grounded within the larger context of political theory, specifically the tension between representative and direct forms of democracy. Sections of the paper are:

International Journal of Science and Society

As a country that upholds democracy, Indonesia uses democracy in carrying out political participation. Along with technological developments, the integration of this technology appears in the way of politics. This research aims to explore the impact of digital technology on political participation in the modern era. In its implementation, this research was carried out using a descriptive qualitative approach. Using relevant data from previous research through literature studies, this research will produce a deeper understanding of the role of technology in shaping the way people engage in politics. The results of this research found that there is a lot of potential in digital democracy technological innovation. These various potentials such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and mobile devices have the potential to increase the efficiency and quality of political participation. However, in its implementation, there are still several obstacles, such as regulations, ethics, and u...

1998

Added to the mix in current discussion about the future of American democracy is the potentially revolutionary impact of new information technologies on civic life. This paper explores the claims for technology's ability to enhance civic participation, focusing particular attention on the Internet. The paper states that the claims are grounded, however, within the larger context of political theory-specifically, the tension between representative and direct forms of democracy. It addresses this context first, before considering politics on the Internet and discussing a 1998 K. A. Hill and J. E. Hughes study about Usenet political newsgroups. Contains 24 references and 3 appendixes: Appendix A contains data on Usenet Newsgroups; Appendix B contains Websites used in the 1998 study; and Appendix C lists addresses for "electronic democracy" websites. (BT)

EIIC 2014. The 3rd Electronic International Interdisciplinary Conference, Proceedings in Electronic International Interdisciplinary Conference, eds. M. Mokrys, S. Badura, A. Lieskovsky, EDIS – Publishing Institution of the University of Zilina, Slovakia, ss. 311-315, ISSN 978-80-554-0921-4., 2014

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) constitute a crucial element of globalisation and computerization processes. ICT are not exclusively present in the economy, entertainment, trade or banking, but they are also used in politics or social area. Public institutions employ ICT (particularly the Internet) for informational and educational purposes as well as for improving the efficiency of state institutions and bodies. With the availability of new (apart from traditional) forms of participation, such as e.g. electronic community consultations, electronic people's initiatives, participatory budgeting, e-voting, the citizens are offered the possibility to increase their activity on the political scene and their real influence on the decision-making process. It’s due to the fact that modern technologies can improve the interactions occurring between voters and political institutions, political parties, or politicians. One of such interaction is the process of voting, which in some countries is supported by ICT (e-voting). This article aims primarily at providing answers for questions: about the most important problems connected with introduction of this more and more popular way of civic participation in politics and with the use of e-voting in general elections, as well as about the most crucial and most frequent uncertainties that e-voting implies.

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.

Extended Public Space for E-participation in Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, IdeA (2005)

Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Third Edition, 2015