E-democracy or Digital Democracy

E-democracy
Dr. Varun Kumar
Dr. Varun Kumar (IIIT Surat) Lecture-30 1 / 8

Outlines
1 Introduction
2 Key features of e-democracy
Expansion of conventional democratic system
Improving democracy
Disruption of e-democracy and Digital inclusion
3 Issues with e-democracy

Introduction
Key point
⇒ E-democracy = Electronic + Democracy.
⇒ It is also called as digital democracy or Internet democracy.
⇒ It is the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in
political and governance processes.
⇒ The term is proposed by digital activist Steven Clift.
⇒ ICT include civic technology and government technology.
⇒ All adult citizens are presumed to be eligible to participate equally in
the proposal, development and creation of laws.
⇒ E-democracy encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions
that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination.

Key features of E-democracy
Expanding democracy
⇒ The Internet encourage thinking capability by a democratic medium.
⇒ Electronic voting should be done with a proper purpose and with
achieving a common constitutional goal.
⇒ Example: Expanding democracy → e-voting (by EVM) Vs traditional
ballots.
Social design in the early days of internet:
⇒ Strong support for free speech (norms of a democracy).
⇒ Sharing culture
Unmediated mass communication on the internet
Newsgroups
Chat rooms etc
Finally, because the Internet is a massive digital network with open
standards, universal and inexpensive access to a wide variety of
communication media and models could actually be attained.

Improving democracy
♦ Modern democracies ⇔ Representative democracies.
♦ Citizens elect representatives for
Creation and implementation of laws
Making policies
Proper regulations on their behalf
⇒ Direct democracies ⇔ Citizens retain that responsibility.
E-democracy:
⇒ E-democracy devolve political power from elected representatives to
the individual.
⇒ The Internet educates people on democracy, helping people stay up to
date with what is happening in their government.
⇒ Online advertising is becoming more popular for political candidates.
⇒ Usability of search engines, such as Google results in
Increased citizen engagement with research and political issues.

Continued–
⇒ Any individual has the potential to go viral and gain influence over a
large number of others.
⇒ Collective decision making and problem-solving gives more power to
the citizens and helps politicians make decisions faster.
⇒ Getting feedback and advice from the American population is a large
part of a politician’s job.
⇒ Example: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton made good use of
Twitter.
⇒ E-democracy is sometimes seen as a remedy to the insular nature,
concentrated power, and lack of post-election accountability.

Disruption of e-democracy and Digital inclusion
⇒ E-democracy platforms expand the opportunities to exercise voting
rights in political elections.
⇒ They are also vulnerable to disruption
⇒ Digital voting platforms have received attacks that tried to change a
political election’s outcome.
⇒ Cyber-security threats to the integrity of
Electoral mechanisms
Government institutions
Digital inclusion
Digital inclusion is essential for citizen participation in public policy.
It helps the formulation for a healthy digital democracy through equal
participation of all sections of society, irrespective of
⇒ Citizen’s income level
⇒ Education level
⇒ Gender, ”Religion”, ”Color”, ”Race”, ”Language, ”Physical and mental
health”

Issues with e-democracy
⇒ Effective participation
⇒ Voting equality at decision stage
⇒ Enlightened understanding
⇒ Control of the agenda
⇒ Inclusiveness
Systemic issues may include
Cyber-security concerns
Protection of sensitive data from third parties

E-democracy or Digital Democracy

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