{"id":4795,"date":"2017-04-13T13:21:57","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T11:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?p=4795"},"modified":"2017-04-13T13:21:57","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T11:21:57","slug":"e-democracy-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/e-democracy-3","title":{"rendered":"E-Democracy: Increased Participation and Transparency with Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>E-Democracy is a form of digital participation that&#8217;s popping up more regularly these days. As a buzzword it&#8217;s being thrown around in politics and on social media alike and has more than a few people rubbing their hands in anticipation. In the first part of our new series on the future of democracy in the digital world, we are looking at E-Democracy.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>E-Democracy \u2013 What Is It?<\/h3>\n<p>First of all, it&#8217;s short for electronic democracy and appears all over the place in different forms such as eDemocracy. It&#8217;s also often confused with E-Government or E-Governance, which we&#8217;ll delve into below. E-Democracy\u00a0is defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as &#8220;the use of information and communication technologies to enhance and in some accounts\u00a0replace representative democracy.&#8221;\u00a0It goes on to outline\u00a0that the essence of E-Democracy is to help promote democracy through digital means, emphasizing transparency and the importance of a political education that translates to increased participation. It can be best understood as a means to promote further interaction with politics, government and the decision making process.<\/p>\n<p>For simplicity, we have divided E-Democracy into three categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>E-Government<\/li>\n<li>E-Participation<\/li>\n<li>I-Voting<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><strong>E-Government<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>E-Government is the end goal of\u00a0E-Democracy. It is essentially just describes a more digitalized governance process. This extends from running government on a day-to-day basis to the promotion of digital communications processes. The crux of E-Democracy is to promote transparency and efficiency within the running of the government. One side of the coin is freely available and easily accessible\u00a0data. The ability to gain an understanding of the workings of government helps promote E-Democracy in that it has a significant impact on E-participation (more below).\u00a0The other side of the coin is changing the workings of government to become more efficient. This could be anything from filling out tax forms online to applying for a passport or changing a registered address online.<\/p>\n<h4>E-Participation<\/h4>\n<p>The ultimate goal of\u00a0E-Democracy is participation.\u00a0E-Participation is simply\u00a0the <em>digitalization<\/em> of how we interact with democracy. It aims at increasing the frequency with\u00a0which citizens interact with democracy by simplifying the process significantly.\u00a0Signing petitions and direct interactions with elected representatives are areas in which digitalization has already taken hold. Good examples of E-Participation are websites\u00a0such as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/get-involved\/take-action\/\">Amnesty international<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\">change.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Amnesty International writes petitions themselves and individuals need only enter\u00a0their address and Email address in order to sign them. It&#8217;s a similar system on change.org with the crucial difference being that all petitions are user-created. This means that individuals have the ability to highlight the issues they feel are important. E-Participation is often enabled by good E-Government. The\u00a0United Kingdom recently established an <a href=\"https:\/\/petition.parliament.uk\">online petitions website<\/a> where citizens are able to freely create and sign petitions. If petitions reach a certain number of signatures, parliament\u00a0is obliged to respond to them.<\/p>\n<p>Simplifying processes of interacting with democracy increases participation rates and also creates interest which feeds back into\u00a0increased participation. Liquid democracy, or delegative democracy, is an interesting example of E-participation. In essence it is a system of governance where representatives vote on issues on behalf of their constituents as normal. However, constituents may withdraw this permission at any time and vote on issues themselves instead. Therefore, the electorate is\u00a0able to vote on issues that really matter to them but don&#8217;t need to be involved 100%\u00a0of the time.<\/p>\n<p>We will be exploring the different aspects of liquid democracy in next week&#8217;s blog post.<\/p>\n<h3>I-Voting<\/h3>\n<p>One of the most highly contest aspects of E-Democracy is I-Voting. Many people take issue with the security aspects of online voting. However, it&#8217;s well known\u00a0that simplifying the election process for the electorate will increase turnout. Estonia have proven that it&#8217;s possible to provide online elections in politics and have been allowing their citizens to vote online since 2007. I-Voting is the great enabler of E-Democracy. A\u00a0secure and reliable online voting platform would make liquid democracy possible and would reduce many of the barriers of entry into effective political interaction.<\/p>\n<p>The sentiment for I-Voting is growing stronger. Like most aspects of E-Democracy, it&#8217;s largely due to its ability to simplify voting procedures and reduce costs. I-Voting is spreading in non-political elections around Europe and North America. Naming just a few, unions, cooperatives, associations, universities and schools have chosen to digitalize\u00a0their voting procedures.<\/p>\n<p>I-Voting has a huge impact on E-Democracy in the long term. On the one hand, non-political elections provide a perfect testing ground from which secure and trustworthy political elections can be developed. Some companies demand the highest security standards while others request complex features allowing developers to gather crucial experience for the inevitable shift over to I-Voting in politics. The other impact that I-Voting will have on the development of E-Democracy is the expectations that it will create. The ease and simplicity of online voting will cause many citizens to demand simplified national or regional elections.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.com\/online-voting\">Learn more about our online voting platform &#8211; our\u00a0features\u00a0and security measures<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>What next for E-Democracy?<\/h3>\n<p>Education, investment, and engagement in the ideas behind E-Democracy.\u00a0While a core aspect of E-Democracy is the simplification of participation, there are still knowledge barriers that need to be overcome. A combination of reducing these barriers to levels where people can understand the core tenets of a debate, and education to enable people to overcome these barriers is\u00a0crucial. E-Democracy goes a long way to generating participation itself, but there needs to be an initial spark of interest to create a reciprocal cycle.<\/p>\n<p>Up Next: Liquid Democracy &#8211; What is it and why do I want it?<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>E-Democracy is a form of digital participation that&#8217;s popping up more regularly these days. As a buzzword it&#8217;s being thrown around in politics and on social media alike and has more than a few people rubbing their hands in anticipation. In the first part of our new series on the future of democracy in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","ub_ctt_via":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[37],"tags":[1131,1330,1328,79],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Charles Harding","author_link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/c-harding"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>E-Democracy: Increased Participation and Transparency with Technology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The essence of E-Democracy is to help promote democracy through digital means, emphasizing transparency and the importance of interacting with politics.\" \/>\n<meta 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Disadvantages","date":"10\/05\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In the previous installments of this series, we have covered some of the different forms of digital participation. Today we will be assessing the overall benefits and drawbacks of participating in a digital world.\u00a0 The Advantages of Digital Participation The main goal of online democracy is the strengthened integration of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Democracy&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Digital Participation","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Digital-Participation.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4299,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/e-democracy","url_meta":{"origin":4795,"position":1},"title":"E-Democracy: Not What you Think it is","date":"16\/02\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Simply put, e-democracy is the use of information technology and communication technology in democratic sectors within political processes. However, there is much more to it than that. Read on to learn more. E-democracy (also known as eDemocracy) can be divided up into two halves: short-term and long-term. Ultimately, the long-term\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Democracy&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"E-democracy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/digitalisation.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4835,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/liquid-democracy-2","url_meta":{"origin":4795,"position":2},"title":"Digital Participation: What is Liquid Democracy?","date":"20\/04\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In the second part of our series on digital democracy, we are looking at liquid democracy. Liquid democracy is a fascinating modern take on participation and the form\u00a0democracy could take in the future. Read on for a short introduction. Liquid Democracy - What is it & How It Works\u00a0 Liquid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Democracy&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":847,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/to-international-day-of-democracy-the-internet-fosters-participation-and-inclusion","url_meta":{"origin":4795,"position":3},"title":"To International Day of Democracy: the internet fosters participation and inclusion","date":"16\/09\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A day for democracy! The United Nations created the International Day of Democracy in 2007. Each year on 15th September we look at the state of democracy around the world. The Democracy Day theme this year is \u201cSpace for Civil Society\u201d, because if the relationship between state and citizens is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Democracy&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/31533000_l1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1170,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/online-elections\/research\/digital-democracy-is-e-voting-a-wake-up-call-for-voters","url_meta":{"origin":4795,"position":4},"title":"Digital Democracy: Is E-voting a wake-up call for voters?","date":"14\/10\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"What is E-Voting? What kind of advantages comes with online voting and are there any weak points? \u00a0Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Merkel,\u00a0Director of the department \u201eDemocracy and Democratisation\u201c at the science centre for social research in Berlin (WZB), discusses democratic innovations in theory and practice in a published study by the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Online Electoral Analysis&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Ballot_Sleep.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4871,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/digital-participation-increase-through-the-internet","url_meta":{"origin":4795,"position":5},"title":"Digital Participation \u2013 Increased Public Involvement via Internet?","date":"28\/04\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"More and more municipalities count on digital communication services to involve the public. Hence, many municipalities have already created or plan to establish online participation and consultation platforms. However, can these measures help increase public participation? More transparency = more public participation The internet offers various possibilities to take part\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Democracy&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4795"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4811,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4795\/revisions\/4811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}