Monograph "Second Congress on Internet, law and politics: analysis and prospective study"

Democratic Innovation and ICTs: towards a participative democracy?

Clelia Colombo (ccolombo@uoc.edu)
Member of the e-Government research group at the UOC's Law and Political Science department

Abstract

The incorporation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) into politics has introduced fundamental changes in democratic political systems and given rise to new possibilities for relationships between citizens and political representatives, allowing a certain reunion between politics and society. ICTs can provide technical assistance for improving channels of information, communication, deliberation and participation among citizens in public decision making, by making them more immediate, simple and effective. On the other hand, they allow us to minimise the limitations of time and distance that can affect political participation, reduce the organizational costs of collectives and increase the opportunities for both communication among people and the exchange of contents.

The communication that you have in your hands wishes to study the relationship that is established between ICTs -especially the Internet- and democracy, specifically those mechanisms for citizen participation in public decision making, limiting the study to institutionalised participation. To that end, we shall first be looking at how they influence democracy, exploring various possibilities based on the ambit of ICT application and the degree of democratic innovation that is permitted. Next, the new forms of citizen participation via the Internet are reviewed, addressing the main opportunities and limits of this technology for democracy and citizen participation. Finally, there is a short reflection on whether ICTs are an innovative form of citizen participation or simply tools at the disposal of the old forms of such participation.

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Published in:  October 2006