Lecture at the pre-congress seminar of the
Assembly of the European Regions
Seinäjoki, Finland, December 2000
Main theme of the congress was "The new forms of European governance".
Lecture title: "The possibilities of information technology to improve and develop democracy and democratic processes"
Lecture notes with references and links to on-line projects will be made available at the website of PSAMRA/Integral Studies. A video recording of the seminar which contains this lecture is archived here.
Michael Macpherson mm@iniref.org
Integral Studies ~ Psycho-Social and Medical Research, Guildford and Berlin.Aspects of democracy which may be improved are manifold and include:
• representation of the interests and will of the people;
• freedom of public information and openness of governance;
• participation of citizens in deliberation and decision-making of public affairs;
• legitimation of governance in multi-country organisations.In this presentation I will concentrate on the third item, participation of citizens in governance, weaving in some consideration of how communication between the people and their elected representatives and public administrators may be improved.
Does the public want reform or improvement of democracy? Some data of political analysts concerning the Federal Republic of Germany, Sweden and Britain will be shown, supporting the view that for some decades there has been public discontent with how things are. The data, along with much other evidence not cited here, strongly imply that most people want to have more say in governing their own affairs.
Some work which reviews methods of participation of citizens in governance, including public budgetting, will be reported and a recent, spectacular example of large- scale deliberation of citizens in public policy questions will be described. A plea that participation should be meaningful and effective, rather than only symbolic and educative, will be made. A well tried and effective form of participation in public affairs, citizens' initiative and referendum, will be described and potential facilitation by ICT will be shown.
As a backdrop, or "benchmark" to subsequently described innovations and projects an idealised ICT-mediated plan for improved participation in governance, "Open Forum", will be demonstrated.
Then some examples of electronically enhanced democratic process will be given. Attitudes of politicians and proposals of researchers regarding the informatisation of governance and the enhanced participation of citizens will be mentioned.
Examples may include a "precinct" (local district) participation project from Fremantle, Australia; An on-line consultation of the population by the mayor of a small town in Germany; A quite good example of an issues-based public "agora" set up for its citizens by the city of Hannover FRG; Citizens' and non-governmental on-line discussion forums in FRG; Deliberative and educative on-line politics projects; "Shadow parliament" projects for watchful and concerned citizens; Self-help campaigns and political programmes.
It will be argued that public investment for democratic development should include the promotion of citizens' participation. Moves towards more participation should be accompanied by programmes to improve information about public affairs as well as to promote widespread deliberation on particular issues. "Outreach" by government at all levels is an essential concept which has been under-developed. Setting up a World Wide Web site is not enough. A citizens' on-line agora could find common ground with developing programmes of "one-stop e-government", with potentially fruitful interactions. The best of established democratic, consultative and participatory procedures should be made widely known. Ways to promote a mixed system of direct and indirect (representative) governance, considering traditional communication as well as potential applications of information and communication technology, deserve the urgent attention of public bodies and commercial organisations.
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