e-Democracy Blessing or Curse? e-Democracy Blessing or Curse? Monique Leyenaar Radboud University Nijmegen Netherlands Council of Europe Forum for the Future of Democacy Madrid October

How can e-Democracy contribute towards Inclusive Politics ?

Content  High expectations from e-Democracy  Positive and Negative Findings  e-Democracy window of opportunity for greater inclusion of women?  Some empirical findings  Higher quality of (e-)Democracy necessary  Three-dimensional model 3

ICT in Politics Bridging the Gap  Enhances inclusiveness  Increases transparency  Increases responsiveness  Enables citizens to inform themselves  Increases opportunities for participation  Increases government’s efficiency and improves citizen service convenience

Inclusive politics  More  women  migrants  younger people  lower educated  lower income  political alienated

ICT in Politics “The Ultimate Nightmare”  Use of ICT may enhance distrust in institutions  Lack of technical knowledge  Expectations set too high (input overload)  Increasing social isolation  Digital Divide  Doubts whether e-participation succeeds in attracting new voices

21st Century Democracy  Three essential aspects:  Representation (inclusiveness)  Participation (intensity and quality)  Information (knowledge ability) 7

representation participation information

Conclusion ICT involves more people and offers more information However: –An increase in opportunity does not lead automatically to an increase in actual participation –(new) participatory arrangements are necessary (random sampling/deliberation) Furthermore: - The information is largely unstructured, unbalanced, contradictory etc. –(new) actors are necessary to filter, sort, structure and interpret information.