Involving citizens the key to effective eDemocracy

Return to full list of Think Pieces

Andy Williamson

Andy Williamson is Director of eDemocracy Programmes at the London-based Hansard Society. A sought-after commentator on eDemocracy and community ICT, he was formerly Deputy Chair of the New Zealand Government’s Digital Strategy Advisory Group.

Involving citizens the key to effective eDemocracy

The internet has rapidly transformed thinking and action in many areas of our lives. Its use to support democracy lags behind but there is an increasing expectation that governments will turn to internet-based tools to support democratic engagement. By 2010 we are expected to see the internet bring about significant changes in democratic process and a changing relationship between government and civil society.

What is missing from this vision is how this might occur and, perhaps more importantly, whose role it is to lead such a transformation. It should not be assumed that government alone can or should.

The internet offers citizens an opportunity to reclaim their voices at a time when increasing decentralisation of decision making is mirrored by declining democratic participation. As John Kenneth Galbraith put it, governments are often perceived as "mentally moribund, seriously incompetent and, on frequent occasion, offensively arrogant" ⁱ.

Our democratic reality is seen by some as communities over-consulted and then ignored. Falling rates of voter participation in local government fundamentally challenges the legitimacy of our democratic processes and reinforces a public perception of government detached from its constituents.

Democracy itself remains a fraught and contestable discourse, simply prefixing it with an 'e' to signify digitisation is problematic. Is 'eDemocracy' a new opportunity or simply shifting what we already do online? If it is the latter then we have a problem.

If eDemocracy is to move beyond information provision and narrow models of government-managed engagement, extending the democratic model beyond an electronically-enabled status quo, then citizens as well as governments must take ownership and lead the transformation. Effective engagement requires us to work from both ends of the democratic spectrum, sometimes pushing against existing power structures and at other times working with them. In the future it will require new spaces for effective engagement to emerge.

Effective eDemocracy becomes possible when citizens have the pre-requisite access, literacy skills and awareness of a wide-range of content to actively participate. But, to be motivated, they must also see value in the new processes of engagement. This cannot happen until citizens have the confidence to create and manage these processes in ways which privilege their own views and which empower them to act on the consequences of their own decisions.

Increased democratic participation will not occur because of technology; it is a dual process of increasing engagement–building awareness of issues (which ICT supports) and harnessing new technology to reduce the barriers to engagement. Increased awareness leads to greater motivation to become involved.

eDemocracy will not of itself bring about a renaissance in democratic engagement. This is particularly true if it remains the domain of governments and their technocratic partners. True democracy requires an active and informed civil society as an equal partner. Enabling this is one potential ICT offers us.

It is naïve to assume that ICT alone will transform democracy and re-invigorate decision making if the focus remains on projects and technology. This change will be led by the transformations in our society that ICT supports.

Citizens, as well as governments, must take a role in transforming democracy. If the potential for eDemocracy is to engage more widely, more often and more effectively, then this is also true of how we develop these new processes. Effective eDemocracy will only happen when both sides work together.

Footnotes

[i. Galbraith, J. K. (1992). The culture of contentment. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. P.67.]