Democracy in the information Age

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Democracy in the information Age

• Wilton Park Conference
• Thursday October 25
• Governance Strand Discussion

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TASK

• Set agenda
• Pick issues of concern
• Examples from your own countries of e-democracy
  going wrong or not taking off
• Make proposals for future international
  collaboration in this area

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• This is NOT about direct democracy !!
• Stephen Coleman

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Democracy

• One of the cornerstones of democracy has been to
  provide public spaces in which citizens can
  discuss ideas
• the web provides a new and important space

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Changing Government Volume 1

• The Political- Administrative Interface pg13
• In a democracy, the role of the elected
  representatives is to ensure that the values and
  interests of the whole society are fairly
  represented in public debate

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Jerry Mechling

• Inputs
• how do we decide what we want government to do
• Who has access ?
• Who has authority ?
• Who is we ??
• technology opens things up - creating a whole
  bunch of choices from which to choose

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Good governmentUrsula Franklin

• Fair
• transparent
• takes people seriously

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Good e-government

• Fair
• accessible
• eg CAP , plain language, multiple formats
• transparent
• accountable
• eg donations
• takes people seriously
• assured listening
• where are we in the process ??
• eg SFTH

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Applying Feminist theory

• Discomfort with hierarchical structure
• Respect for inclusive-decision making
• Add the flattening that technology brings to
  all organizations by which the top can get
  direct information from the bottom not mediated
  by the middle

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EKOS Frank Graves

• assured listening
• Otherwise increases the cynicism were trying to
  fight
• Idea of tracking successes

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E-making a differencesetting the agenda, policy
priorities

• 1. NGOs
• 2. Media
• 3. Professional Organizations
• 4. Talking to government

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Personal Concerns

• 11 of Canadianscontact their elected
  representative, letters to editor etc.
• Difference between values and opinions
• Quebec City, Genoa - didnt come and talk to me
• Attitude of some members of the public service
• Parliament is a minor process obstacle
• We need good people to run
• public life highest calling

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St. Pauls model

• Newsletters etc.
• Town Halls, Roundtables
• Parliamentary Clinics
• Tabulation re phone calls and faxes and emails to
  the PMO
• Schools Grade 5 Canadian Government
• Grade 10 Civics (compulsory)
• Website Phase 2

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Dialogue St. Pauls - 2000

• Citizen Engagement and the Elected Representative
• Robert Putnam
• Social capital
• Declining memberships, voter turnout
• bowling alone
• Internet - complementary

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Citizen Engagement the Elected Representative

• The social contract in our democracy is founded
  on the consent of the governed.
• Background document, William Young,
• Library of Parliament

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Citizen Engagement the Elected Representative

• This implies not just that voters select their
  governments, but also that there is more or less
  continuous contact between citizens and their
  elected representatives in order to exchange
  knowledge and opinions.

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Citizen Engagement the Elected Representative

• It also implies the expression of preferences on
  the part of the citizen, as well as a certain
  level of attentiveness and consciousness of what
  government is doing, or wants to do.

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Dialogue St. Pauls

• Recommendations from last year -
• playbook of best practices townhalls etc.
• web-based solutions
• issues groups, captains
• interactive website
• accountabilty
• improved communication on what parliamentarians
  do -
• ? Post schedule

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Dialogue St. Pauls

• Rise in reliance on polling
• rising interest in direct democracy
• increased use of non-elected bodies for
  decision-making
• scepticism of formal public consultation
• need for parliamentary reform
• confusion between political partisan

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Whos asking ???

• individual elected members
• standing committees
• The bureaucracy
• ? Political parties
• NGOs ?? Democratic, whats their policy process
  ?
• Business

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Whos being asked ?

• Breadth, Depth ??
• Usual suspects parliamentary committees
• Comfortable reference groups public service
• Evaluation

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??? Different questions

• What ?? - political question
• How ?? - management question
• Perhaps also developing menu of policy options is
  also the role of the public service .series of
  whats

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???? Goals

• POWER
• INFLUENCE

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Citizen Engagement

• Different meanings
• ? Government seeking knowledge and experience on
  an area they are interested in
• ? Citizens trying to influence public policy and
  decision-makers on THEIR issues

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Stephen Coleman

• Realizing Democracy Online A Civic Commons in
  Cyberspace
• Jay G. Blumler Stephen Coleman
• IPPR/Citizens Online Research Publication No.2
• e- guide for parliamentarians
• how to be an online representative
• Hansard Society

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Introducing D-Code

• D-Code is a strategy, research and development
  company that seeks to engage the Information Age
  Generations (i.e. young adults in their late
  teens to late thirties) to build a better
  workplace, marketplace and society
• www.d-code.com

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The Challenge

• To engage young Canadians politicians need to
  overcome two major challenges
• A) Awareness
• B) Involvement

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The Challenge

• Engaging Young Canadians in traditional politics
  is difficult.
• Low levels of political and civic literacy.
• Mistrust and lack of confidence in politicians.
• Inability to see relevance of politics to daily
  life.
• Exposure to negative portrayal of politicians and
  government in media.
• Stage of life rebellion, less interested in
  traditional institutions.

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The Challenge

• To engage young Canadians politicians need to
  overcome two major challenges
• A) Awareness
• B) Involvement

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• To engage young Canadians on-line, elected
  officials need to be (key success factors)
• RELEVANT
• AUTHENTIC
• INFORMATIVE
• INTERACTIVE
• COMMITTED.

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Government use of internet

• Bureaucracy
• Elected officials
• Committees
• Political parties

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U.S. initiatives

• Grassroots.com etc. etc.
• IBM Institute for Electronic Government
• The Council for Excellence in Government
• E-government - The next American Revolution
• Congress Online Project
• E-mail Overload in Congress

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Congress On-line

• E-mail Overload in Congress
• 4 principles
• Establish and communicate e-mail policies
• Anticipate and reduce the amount of incoming
  email
• Automate as much of the process as possible
• Respond in a timely fashion

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Bran Ferren, Chief Imagineer, Walt Disney Co.

• Trying to assess the importance of the Net now is
  like asking the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk if
  they were aware of the potential of frequent
  flyer programs .

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E-democracy

• Not the intent to circumvent, but to strengthen
  the role of representatives
• Douglas Alexander MP, e-commerce Minister UK
• Staying responsive and relevant to citizens.
• Hon. Paul Martin, Minister of Finance, Canada

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Challenges

• Attitudes - reluctance to change
• Governments loss of control, not really ready
  to listen
• Citizens already written us off
• issue of choice to use older methods
• exclusive vs counterweight to elitism
• not just cost-benefit analysis - public good
• expectations too high to be responded to
• resources

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Colemans Questions

• 1.What are the links between e-government
  (on-line service delivery etc.) and e-democracy
• 4. How strong is the case for a civic commons in
  cyberspace ?
• what will be the responsiveness ?? Link
• 7. Should the civil use of the internet for
  democratic purposes be the responsibility of
  Governments or others, eg business,
  legislatures,NGOs ?

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Empowering Citizens

• Information
• Consultation
• Engagement/Active Participation
• EVALUATION

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TASK

• Set agenda
• Pick issues of concern
• Examples from your own countries of e-democracy
  going wrong or not taking off
• Make proposals for future international
  collaboration in this area

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TASK

• Set agenda
• Pick issues of concern
• Examples from your own countries of e-democracy
  going wrong or not taking off
• Make proposals for future international
  collaboration in this area

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Governance Strand 25/10/01

• Empowering citizen empowering govt
• ??? Can it be done at the same time
• If citizens set agenda will govt OR parliament
  lose pwr
• ??? Power ?? Zero sum
• Or does 225 ie a better result
• More relevant,responsive
• E- government transactional even
  dictatorships can do it !
• Why are we doing it ?? Elite interest

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Motivation/advantages

• To citizen -vision of armchair democracy can
  fight on-line
• ??aspiration to equality
• opportunity for Green Party, women, deaf
• engagement will somehow enhance stature
• health or wealth
• must feel some change
• To parliamentarians seem more
  relevant,responsive , enhance legitimacy
• To Cabinet/government ability to see
  consultation docs
• To committees hear from other than usual
  suspects

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Barriers

• ?? Power threatened
• Discomfort with changing roles
• ? Process manager or architect

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Language debate

• Influence vs power which do citizens really want
• Consultation vs engagement
• Expectations re actual decision making
• Is enabling a better word than empowerment
• Does the net mean more power or possibilities
• Citizens as partners ??? Sharing power

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Structural Challenges

• Horizontal processes amongst stakeholders
• ?? In conflict with vertical government
• ? Opportunity to develop solutions and consensus
  to present to government

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1. Information

• What is public data automatic, transparent
• ? Real information vs propaganda
• ? FOI ? OECD targets norm, min. standards?
• Instead of what should be public, should we be
  asking which info should NOT be public

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2. Consultation

• Legitimacy dependent upon ensuring all
  perspectives included
• Early on eg draft bill, budget

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3. Active Participation/engagement

• Transparency scrutiny, accountability for all

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Evaluation

• ? OECD best practices

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Governance Strand 26/10/01

• Representative Democracy
• vote
• contact between elections
• previously special interest groups
• now broader
• Education hugely important

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E is

• Unit cost transactions are cheaper
• Sense of time expectation of immediacy
• responsiveness gets redefined
• Shift in expectation of parliamentarians
• Elected Representative
• makes more representative a la Burke know
  them better
• Transformative shines the light of transparency

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HELPS

• Access to quality info
• Access to e-deliberation
• Especially those previous excluded disabled,deaf
• Can be gender and racial neutral
• Web-versions of complex documents
• Trouble with geographical representation may
  improve issue representation
• Helps smaller organization become competetive

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HELPS ii

• Political parties become more robust
• Political advantage of politicians re-election
• Transparency of groups
• Reduce information divide
• Dissemination/penetration of information improves
• Strengthening process for individuals prior to
  connectedness with reps cff just connecting via
  groups

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Hinders

• Volume problems ??? Need for filter
• Require new skill set
• Problem with education/literacy/language barriers
• People part at risk human emotional lag
• Asks whether reps and those representative are
  really interested in a real relationship
• Dinosaurs
• Geographical/constituency representation may be
  more difficult ?? Call for PR

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solutions

• Education on how the internet works and the
  potential dangers.. Use radio and other media
• Good moderation
• Clear language directives
• Maintain complementary nature dont abandon
  other methods, especially the real personal
  contact use other media like TV clips to
  demonstrate examples of high quality interactions
  on the net

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Solutions ii

• Possible to find a champion for your issue
• Requires anticipation and response from reps
• Tabulated s will be sent higher up !
• Expectation quality information
  identification NOT necessarily the responsibility
  of govt eg links etc.
• E-voting must be trusted and protected deal
  with organizations that will try to link to
  voting site
• Provide intermediaries when necessary
• Marketing how easy it is
• Use Parliament for what parliament does best cff
  elected reps

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Colemans questions

• 1.see diagram
• 2.both
• 3. ??
• 4.need lots of experiments
• 5.threat to usual stakeholders, potential undue
  influence
• 6.not representative sample .misleading
• 7.shared
• 8.reading before posting ?? sensible