Digitalization of Political Participation of Citizens of the European Union as an Tool to Overcome the Democratic Deficit

Abstract

The article carried out a comprehensive study of the potential, opportunities and prospects for digitalization of the political participation of citizens of the European Union as a tool to overcome the deficit of democracy. It has been established that the semantic markers of the process of digitalization of political participation are associated with the goal of overcoming the deficit of democracy in the EU and can be defined through a set of principles: human-centrism; solidarity and inclusion; freedom of choice; political participation in the democratic process at all levels; safety; constancy. It is proved that overcoming the deficit of democracy with the help of digitalization tools of political participation has clearly shown the risks and dangers of a digital divide that deepens politically significant cleavages: economically developed regions of the EU – economically depressed regions of the EU; access to a secure digital environment – lack of access to a secure digital environment. The active development of the Internet infrastructure in the EU has not significantly affected the simplification of access for older people, citizens with a lower level of education and citizens with disabilities to e-democracy digital platforms, therefore ensuring the widest possible access to e-participation platforms is a promising direction for EU policy. At the same time, EU policy efforts to increase citizen participation in policymaking should not be based solely on Internet strategies, but should increase the credibility and legitimacy of EU institutions in the economically less developed regions of a united Europe. Using the SWOT analysis method of e-participation tools in the EU, it is substantiated that the European Citizens' Initiative, the European Parliamentary Platform and the advisory petition platform “Your Voice in Europe” have a certain “parity” in the ratio of strengths and weaknesses for each of these tools. Weaknesses and threats can be leveled due to the development of their capabilities in the medium term. In particular, the potential of e-participation tools lies in enhancing the flexibility and convenience of the respective digital platforms; development and implementation of strategies for competitive mobilization and involvement of citizens; detailing the processing of proposals after their acceptance; summarizing and analyzing the data contained in the petitions; creation of a multi-level system of petitions, allowing to correlate local, national and European interests; deployment of discursive interaction between citizens and EU institutions at all stages of using e-participation tools; formalization of the connection between the processes of participation and decision-making. It has been established that the prospects for deepening the process of digitalization of political participation as a tool to overcome the deficit of democracy are determined by the formed request for all the variability of forms of political participation in the EU policy space, which is directly related to the deployment of the public space of European politics and the functional approval of the institution of European citizenship.