Category: e-Democracy

Two Web-based Australian Experiments in Electronic Democracy. Electronic democracy must avoid the pitfalls of direct democracy, which can diminish the necessary information sharing and background debate. Instead, it must offer full interactivity.
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FCW: Governments tap public input – “The problem isn’t with the citizens but with typical meeting formats”. Technology is providing public officials with new ways to solicit public input for transportation and development plans.

Charles F. Sabel’s reflects on Hayek and Durkheim in his Design, Deliberation, and Democracy. On the New Pragmatism of Firms and Public Institutions.

German Institute for Autonomous intelligent Systems is appearently doing something interesting with Team Mediation Systems. Their ZENO is a groupware system for discourses on the Internet.
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CPN: Deliberative Democracy rests on the core notion of citizens and their representatives deliberating about public problems and solutions under conditions that are conducive to reasoned reflection and refined public judgment; a mutual willingness to understand the values, perspectives, and interests of others; and the possibility of reframing their interests and perspectives in light of a joint search for common interests and mutually acceptable solutions.
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Harvards project on Online Deliberation and Discourse seems very relevant. Some good thoughts about ideal features of discourse software.
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The Public Administration Select Committee in the UK has today published their sixth report called INNOVATIONS IN CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNMENT. Very interesting read! I had the pleasure of participating in their online consultation. The committee recommends that all public authorities should have access to a code of guidance which expresses the fundamental importance of involving the public in decision-making wherever and however it can be made feasible at reasonable cost and in a timely and responsible manner.
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Fred Evans’ Cyberspace and the Concept of Democracy: “We often speak of democracy as a mere decision-making procedure rather than as a “form of life.” Part of the reason for this formalism is the difficulty of revealing the aspects of individual and social existence that provide the impetus toward democracy and that democratic practices should reflect and augment. I argue that the Internet’s status as a “virtual” rather than actual reality (its status as a serendipitous form of what phenomenologists call an epochéor a “placing within brackets” of our standard beliefs) reveals some of the more important aspects underlying democracy. In particular, the Internet’s virtual status indicates that society is what I term a “metamorphosing multi-voiced body.” This implies that democracy off-line and online must support the interplay or solidarity among the “voices” of this body (as opposed to their mere plurality) and simultaneously respect their heterogeneity. It must adopt the “interplay of equally audible voices” as its political ideal. Because this interplay among voices produces new discourses, democracy’s valorization of the multi-voiced body must also affirm the metamorphosis that society’s creativity brings about. I also consider what this view of democracy means for current issues concerning the fate and character of the Internet as well for the clash between the liberal, communitarian, and deliberative views of online democracy.
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Civic Participation, Awareness, Knowledge and Skills by James S. Frideres.
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E-democracy, direct democracy, community & action, fragmentation & networks, accountability & representation – these are the headlines in Kala Ladenheim’s essay Federalism & Electronic Democracy. Kala’s site is a sonnet cycle rather than an epic poem.
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