4 - E-Democracy from Above

Summary

Communicating with the public used to be a straightforward operation for governments, parliaments and local authorities. The communicative relationship was largely one-way, with the dissemination of minutes, official records, reports and memoranda being placed regularly within the public domain, usually to be read by a small audience of interested experts. For most citizens, communication with state bodies has tended to be conducted via post or telephone and has involved specific problems relating to their personal circumstances. At election time, publicity campaigns intensified this relationship of monological transmission, leaving citizens with little room to do anything in response except cheer, boo and vote.

During the last decade these old communicative arrangements have come under pressure to change. As citizens begin to experience two-way relationships with other institutions – shops, travel agencies, banks, broadcasters, colleges and universities – there is an increasing expectation that those elected to represent and govern them will be both accessible and interactively accountable online. Most government departments and parliaments now have web sites, as do individual MPs and other elected representatives. But these tend to be little more than electronic brochures: accessible via the Internet, but not conforming to the interactive ethos of online communication. A number of innovative online projects have been initiated. One of the most radical, in terms of shifting the balance of power from the state to citizens, is the Estonian government's TOM web site (TOM stands for ‘Today I Decide’).