Promise and Problems of E-Democracy: Challenges of Online Citizen Engagement (Emerging Economies Transition)

Foreword......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 7 Table of contents......Page 8 What lessons can we learn from current practice in online engagement?......Page 12 Box 1. Guiding Principles for Successful Online Consultation......Page 13 ICTs can enable greater citizen engagement in policy-making…......Page 15 But raise new questions for government…......Page 16 Ensuring greater accessibility of more information…......Page 17 Harnessing the interactivity of ICTs for online consultation…......Page 18 What are the main challenges for online engagement?......Page 19 Box 3. Issues for the evaluation of online engagement......Page 20 Part I. Using Information and Communication Technologies to Enhance Citizen Engagement in the Policy Process......Page 22 Overview......Page 23 Introduction......Page 26 A. Information, Consultation and Participation......Page 30 1. Background......Page 31 2. Objectives of e-engagement......Page 35 Figure 1. The policy life cycle......Page 37 3. Design of e-engagement systems......Page 40 Promote your online consultation......Page 44 Box 3.2. The Netherlands - Promoting e-consultation on a National Strategy for Sustainable Development......Page 45 4. Information online......Page 46 Access to information......Page 47 Box 4.2. Sweden - Älvsjö and Norrmalm: searching for information......Page 48 Understanding information......Page 49 Multi-lingual translation......Page 50 5. E-consultation......Page 51 Using Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)......Page 52 Developing e-consultation websites......Page 53 A design template for online consultation websites......Page 54 Technology to support online deliberation......Page 55 Support to “offline” deliberation......Page 56 Box 5.2. Italy - Municipality of Bologna and the DEMOS project......Page 57 6. E-participation......Page 58 E-petitioning......Page 59 Online referenda......Page 60 Box 6.1. Kista - e-participation through chat rooms......Page 61 B. Constraints and Challenges......Page 62 7. The digital divide......Page 63 Box 7.1. European Union - addressing the digital divide in Europe......Page 64 Box 7.3. Italy - Internet penetration......Page 66 Online community building......Page 67 Engaging young people......Page 68 Box 8.1. The Netherlands - Digital breeding grounds: social networks......Page 69 Box 8.2. Finland - Engaging Finnish Youth......Page 70 Box 8.4. Scotland - Highland Youth Voice Project......Page 71 9. Analysis and feedback of e-contributions......Page 72 Analysis of e-contributions......Page 73 Feedback......Page 74 Box 9.1. Australia - Challenges for governments......Page 75 10. Evaluation of e-engagement......Page 76 Defining objectives......Page 77 Box 10.1. Germany - Evaluating citizen consultation on urban planning use......Page 78 Table 1. Issues for the evaluation of online engagement......Page 79 Learning from local governments......Page 80 Box 11.2. The Netherlands - E-citizens in Amsterdam......Page 81 Box 11.3. Sweden - Bollnäs: municipal community network......Page 82 Box 11.4. Sweden: Älvsjö - Citizen panel and other tools......Page 83 Box 11.6. Sweden - Kista and the cybervote project......Page 84 Experience in national parliaments......Page 85 Challenge No. 5 - Ensuring commitment......Page 86 Government perspective......Page 87 Challenge No. 2 - Building capacity and active citizenship......Page 88 Online tools for civic education......Page 89 Knowledge management......Page 90 Figure 3. The policy life cycle: main steps and stakeholders......Page 91 Lack of tools for evaluating public engagement “online” and “offline”......Page 92 Challenge No. 5 - Ensuring commitment......Page 93 C. Lessons from Experience in OECD Member Countries......Page 96 Building on the experience of others: local, national and international......Page 97 Table 2. Analytical framework for the comparative analysis of e-engagement......Page 98 Highlights......Page 100 Table 3. E-engagement matrix......Page 101 FINLAND - Share Your Views with Us......Page 102 Table 4. Goals and indicators for the “Share your views with us” website......Page 106 THE NETHERLANDS - E-consultation on the future of food......Page 107 SWEDEN - Kalix: annual consultation......Page 109 SWEDEN - Electronic dialogue at Norrmalm District Council......Page 111 ITALY - Municipality of Bologna: DEMOS Project......Page 114 ITALY - Municipality of Cesena PEG online......Page 116 AUSTRALIA - Defence Review 2000......Page 119 UNITED KINGDOM - Online Parliamentary inquiry into Domestic Violence......Page 121 UNITED KINGDOM - Floodforum.net......Page 124 EUROPEAN COMMISSION - Interactive Policy Making (IPM)......Page 127 Table 5. European Commission: using IPM at each stage of the policymaking cycle......Page 131 Bulletin boards......Page 132 Online moderator......Page 133 Remote electronic voting......Page 134 Annex 2. Collaborative Research Projects......Page 135 1. EVE......Page 136 3. AVANTI......Page 137 5. EDEN......Page 138 6. EURO-CITI......Page 139 8. Cybervote......Page 140 9. WeboCracy......Page 141 Bibliography......Page 143 Part II. The Future of the Internet and Democracy Beyond Metaphors, Towards Policy......Page 146 Surfing on the information highway......Page 147 Unearthing democracy......Page 149 Inventing e-democracy......Page 151 Re-inventing representation......Page 154 Trusted space......Page 155 Constitutional integration......Page 156 Meaningful interactivity......Page 157 Zones of silence - Zones of deafness......Page 158 Information as a common resource......Page 159 Promoting excluded voices......Page 160 Representing geography......Page 161 Towards a policy for e-democracy......Page 162 Bibliography......Page 164 This book highlights policy lessons in using ICTs to provide information, opportunities for consultation and public participation in policy-making. It includes numerous examples of current practice from 12 OECD member countries (Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Slovak Republic, Sweden, UK) as well as the European Commission. It does not deal with online service delivery nor with ICT applications to elections (e.g. e-voting) although some of the issues discussed here, such as providing information online, may be relevant for both