E-Democracy: Conceptual Foundations and Recent Trends

Abstract

Lindner and Aichholzer provide an introductory overview of the theoretical and conceptual foundations of electronic democracy, thereby providing analytical insights on the interplay between Internet-based communication and democratic processes. To this end, different normative views, aims and approaches of e-democracy are presented and systematically related to the central tenets of the main models of democracy. As e-participation plays an essential role in most conceptions of e-democracy, a typology of Internet-based citizen involvement is developed, thereby structuring the diversity of e-participation practices. Given the growing relevance of Web 2.0 and social media, the chapter discusses to which degree they are able to support core democratic functions of public communication-namely public critique, legitimation, and integration-by exploring the effects of social media usage on the quality of deliberation, political activism and political behaviour. In view of phenomena such as "personalised politics", echo chambers and deliberate misinformation, the authors call for effective political, educational and regulatory responses to the democratic challenges social media increasingly pose. 2.1 Organisation and Theoretical Framework This chapter provides an introductory overview of the basic concepts, which will be applied in the ensuing chapters of this volume. This includes a brief introduction of the key characteristics of liberal, participatory and deliberative democracy, with the aim of providing conceptual orientation regarding the different concepts of e-democracy that will be dealt with in greater detail in this book. A comprehensive account and discussion of the rich political and theoretical debates on democracy is

Predictors of e-democracy applicability in Turkish K-12 schools

“…The study therefore suggested that there was evidence on the relationship between the use of Twitter and participation in e-democracy which is commonly argued. This finding could be as a result of the teachers’ awareness of Twitter usage, which supports Lindner and Aichholzer’s ( 2020 ) argument on the importance of ICT use and e-democracy. Extensive social media users may have a high level of ICT awareness.…”

Predictors for the adoption of e-democracy: an empirical evaluation based on a citizen-centric approach

“…E-democracy goes beyond e-government where citizens participate online and enable the public to actively involve and engage in the decision-making process (Mishra, 2019). Edemocracy includes the electronic practices that complement the traditional democratic mode of interaction among parliaments, government executives and local authorities (Lindner and Aichholzer, 2020;Akter et al, 2019;Oni et al, 2017). This approach has received significant attention in the past few years as it improves citizens' participation in democracy.…”

“…E-democracy is the effective participation of citizens in the process of governance, through the access of government information, policies and services in a transparent manner using different ICT technologies, mainly the internet (Akter et al, 2019;Oni et al, 2017;Nchise, 2012). It is important to note that e-democracy is not only informing citizens about the main issues but also aims to articulate citizens' opinions to enhance the political decision-making process and therefore benefit democracy (Lindner and Aichholzer, 2020;Mishra, 2019;Mahrer and Krimmer, 2005). E-democracy can be initiated by improving the delivery of public services, public governance and access to government information (Akter et al, 2019;Oni et al, 2017;Panagiotopoulos et al, 2012).…”

“…The concept of e-democracy has emerged as a new form of democratic practice that allows political parties and democratic actors within a society to present their programs and ideas and communicate via the internet, mobile technologies and social media platforms (Lindner and Aichholzer, 2020;Oni et al, 2017;Ayo et al, 2015). The concept also includes electronic voting (Alguliyev et al, 2019;Shat and Pimenidis, 2017;Nchise, 2012), and e-democracy enables political forces to have a mass media presence by using the internet, which is difficult to achieve using traditional media forms.…”

Implementation of Electronic Services in The System of Population Social Protection

“…Public discussions can serve as a striking example of wide public involvement in the e-government system. In the United States, the obligation to conduct discussions of draft regulatory acts is enshrined at the legislative level in the Law on Administrative Procedure [5], which, however, leaves it to the discretion of government institutions to determine the forms of communication with the public (usually a certain time is given to send comments on draft decisions).…”