PAD 6710: Lecture 4 E-Democracy and Participation

E-democracy  Use of electronic means to promote meaningful democracy Strong democracy-deliberative, open decision making process Electronic platform as the “public square”  Transparency Transparency refers to the openness of the decision making process  Public access to information  Fairness in decision making  Accountability Accountability refers to taking responsibility in decision making process  Public oversight of decision making  Justification by decision makers

IT opportunities for Democracy  IT broadens public access to information  IT can allow broader participation in interacting with legislators Change.gov  IT allows citizen publicizing complaints more easily Praja, a nonprofit in Mumbai, India has an online complaint system about public officials [see: ] Fixmystreet:  IT enables tracking the decision making processes s, videos, other audio-video and written documents are permanent records that can be accessed more easily, increasing transparency and accountability s of public officials are public records Recall youtube video of a senator calling a person macaca cost him running for presidency

IT opportunities for Democracy  IT enables more watchdogs Many government and political blogging sites track the performance of government and elected officials Nonprofit watchdogs  Sunlight Foundation [  Govtrack [  Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW): Government information sources  USAspending: [President Obama’s renewed launch for transparency, which allows public access to budget data, allowing public access to data through Advanced Programming Interface (API)]

Gov 2.0: Adult social networking Source: Pew Internet, 2009, Adults and Social Network Websites  Social networks as “public squares”  Adult social network users quadrupled in the past four years From 8% in 2005 to 35% in  While media focuses heavily on children’s use of social networking, adults still make up the bulk of the users of these websites.  Still younger online adults are much more likely than to use social networks 75% in range; 7% in 65 or more  Most, but not all adult social network users are privacy conscious 60% of restrict access to their profiles

E-Participation E-Civics E-Legislation E-Voting E-Campaigning E-Activism Layers of E-Democracy

Layers  E-Activism The use of electronic means to mobilize volunteers, raise funds, disseminate information, and otherwise pursue the various functions of interest groups seeking to influence public policy  Environmental  Anti-globalization activism:  E-Campaigning The use of electronic means to mobilize volunteers, raise funds, disseminate information and otherwise pursue the various functions of interest groups that seek to influence elections.  Barack Obama raised most of his funding through online campaigns  Moveon.org

Layers  E-Voting The electronic means to implement voting or polling processes via the Internet or other networks, not necessarily limited to traditional political elections. Promoted by the America Vote Act 2002  Main concerns with e-Voting are sabotage, lack of a paper trail, possibilities of machine malfunction, and voter fraud.  E-legislating The use of electronic means to enhance the legislative process  E-rulemaking

Layers  E-Civics The use of electronic means to provide citizens access to agency information – most American already use e-civics functions.  American Civics Center  E-participation The use of electronic means to encourage public participation in governmental decision making or agency rule-making Three forms:  decision-making transparency  and communication  e-Regulation

Digital Divide concepts  Digital Divide Divide: Certain segments of the population are left behind by digital technology – haves and have-nots Inclusion: Concept to include allow computer and internet access to broader segment of population  Tracking digital divide and technology adoption Falling through the Net/ Nation online  Federal government reports between 1995 and 2004 tracked digital divide and technology adoption/ penetration.  Web address: Pew Internet Reports  Pew Internet, a nonprofit, explores the impact of the internet on children, families, communities, the work place, schools, health care and civic/political life.  Web address:

Digital Divide by Race/ Ethnicity White31%42%48%57% African-American14%31%40%43% Hispanic28%41%47%56% Broadband penetration by race/ ethnicity, Source: Pew Internet, 2008, Home Broadband Adoption 2008  Digital divide is significant for African Americans. Broadband adoption was 43% in 2008, lagging far behind Whites.  Digital divide between Whites and Hispanics is not significant.

Digital Divide by Region  Suburban residents are the most users of Internet (60% in 2008, with significant increase over the years)  Rural Americans are the lowest users, with 38% in 2008 However, use by rural Americans has been increasing very fast Urban Suburban Rural Broadband penetration by Region, Source: Pew Internet, 2008, Home Broadband Adoption 2008

Digital Divide by Age Internet Use by Generation Percentage of Americans online by Age Source: Pew Internet, 2009, Generations Online in 2009

Digital divide by Income  Broadband penetration is very low among low- income Americans (households with income $20,000 or below) [about 25% in 2008].  Broadband penetration levels is nearing saturation among upper-income Americans: (households with income $100,000 or or above) [about 85% in 2008]. Source: Pew Internet, 2008, Home Broadband Adoption 2008

E-Democracy  Hacking Democracy = &ei=On6tS4nG DZLmqgLclvTkBg&q=hacking+democrac y+video# = &ei=On6tS4nG DZLmqgLclvTkBg&q=hacking+democrac y+video#  Blackbox voting