The e-democracy project
Pauline Poland
The GOL attendees at the Leiden meeting in October 2000 have chosen two subjects on which they will work in the time ahead. One of these subjects is edemocracy. The first step is to prepare a discussion paper for the next GOL meeting, scheduled for June 2001.
Edemocracy at this moment seems to be a kind of container subject for all kinds of electronic activities that are intended to promote democracy. There’s a lot of subjects to explore. In this GOL-project we want to consider ways in which democracy is changing under the influence of new technologies.
We want to see if and how core democratic values can be protected and promoted by new forms of democracy facilitated by new technologies. In order to achieve this we have to consider what these core values are. Among these are pluralistic competition among parties and individuals for positions of government power and civil and political liberties to speak, publish, assemble and organize. Next to these we consider the connection between citizens and decisionmaking as a core democratic value. This connection has to be established in a way that makes citizens recognize themselves in decisions and that makes them consider these decisions as directive for their own lives.
In the project we will focus on the enhancement of this last democratic value by the use of new technologies. In order to promote this democratic value, new ways of citizen participation in decisionmaking by governmental bodies are experimented with on a large scale in all parts of the world. More and more this is done by the use of new technologies. It’s this part of activities by governments what we mean by edemocracy in this project.
The aim of the project is to focus on the national level of governments. The first output of the project will not be a list of best practises, but an overview of visions behind and the actions of central governments. The aim is to identify the questions they are facing and what their responses are to these questions.
We start with some questions. The answers will provide us with insight into the present state of the art of national policies on edemocracy issues. Moreover we will try to identify unsolved problems and, at a later stage, suggest possible ways to resolve them.
National policy on edemocracy
Does the national government have any policy regarding edemocracy by governmental bodies?
What is the official purpose of this policy?
What are the core characteristics of this policy?
At which actors is this policy directed?
What kind of actions does this policy mean to promote?
Is there any policy on the preconditions under which edemocracy activities are undertaken?
Is there any policy on the status of the results of edemocracy activities?
Do you have any relevant documents or links avaliable on this policy?
Does the national government do any research on edemocracy issues as input for national policies on edemocracy?
National edemocracy activities
Are there any edemocracy activities undertaken by your national government?
Are these edemocracy activities directed at information provision or interaction?
Are edemocracy activities in your country undertaken as part of a multi-channel approach?
Are there any evaluations available on edemocracy activities in your country?
Are there any statistics available on the participation of citizens in edemocracy activities in your country?
Are edemocracy activities in your country undertaken with a view on certain target groups?
Does the national government by any way participate in edemocracy initiatives undertaken by non-governmental bodies?
Which specific policies are subject of edemocracy activities?
In what way is the communication on edemocracy activities designed?
Is there anything known about the cost of edemocracy activities?
Which are the actors involved in edemocracy activities and what roles do they play?
Which specific problems are faced in edemocracy activities and how do you cope with them in your national government?
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