Envisioning E-Democracy?

1
Envisioning E-Democracy?
2
Technical Limits on Public Input through the
Internet

• security vs. privacy conundrum
• identification
• citizenship
• location/constituency
• protect against multiple submissions
• overload/spam
• how to sort information
• what to do with it?
• kooks and cranks
• effects of Internet annonymity

3
e-Democracy...Potential

• civic education
• helping create better citizens
• promote political equality by equalizing access
  to political information
• opportunities to reinforce/build communities of
  shared interest
• build social capital, social cohesion

4
e-Democracy...Potential

• more responsive government services
• horizontal departmental integration and vertical
  connection to clients
• flatter organizational designs and greater
  autonomy for front-line staff
• greater accountability of politicians and public
  servants
• information on performance more easily available
  to wider audience

5
e-Democracy...Potential

• promote open government and facilitate input
• strengthened sense of citizen engagement social
  cohesion

6
e-Democracy...the Obstacles

• elites
• public and private elites have powerful role in
  the current policy process
• lack of political will to really open up
  decision-making to outside players
• lack of familiarity and comfort with ICTs among
  public sector leaders
• general public
• lack of interest, knowledge, willingness to
  participate in the policy process
• lack of familiarity and comfort with ICTs among
  public (especially older generations)

7
e-Democracy...Dangers

• will reinforce existing inequalities
• digital divide
• questions...
• who is excluded?
• how effective are policies to facilitate
  inclusion?
• is e-government any more exclusionary than
  current governing processes?

8
e-Democracy...Dangers

• centralization of control over information
• surveillance
• easily allows government to monitor groups
  without their knowledge
• privacy issues
• security issues

9
e-Democracy...Dangers

• will eliminate intermediaries between government
  and citizens
• legislators, political parties

10
e-Democracy...Dangers

• will eliminate intermediaries between government
  and citizens
• legislators, political parties
• media
• makes democracy faster
• Bill Gates ...information technology allows for
  business at the speed of the thought.
• government at the speed of ___________?

11
e-Democracy...Dangers

• will eliminate intermediaries between govt
  citizens
• but, need government at the speed of civic
  engagement
• meaningful exchange and public deliberation
• forging compromise
• developing social cohesion
• governments ability to make tough decisions
  stick
• ...is good democracy too slow for the Internet?

12
e-Democracy...Dangers

• will eliminate intermediaries between govt
  citizens
• digital reasoning is binary yes vs. no choices
• political reasoning in a democracy must be
  complex, nuanced, and accommodating of differences

13
e-Democracy...Dangers

• will eliminate intermediaries between govt
  citizens
• are intermediaries necessary for good democracy?
• meaningful exchange and public deliberation
• forging compromise
• developing social cohesion
• governments ability to make tough decisions
  stick

14
e-Democracy...Dangers

• promote fragmentation and the loss of social
  cohesion
• governments focused on service delivery (rather
  than participation) reinforcing a shallow
  conception of citizen as customer