Democratic participation ignited by the power of many
Democratic participation ignited by the power of many
June 28, 2007: The latest move towards e-democracy is a process not just granting citizen’s access to information, but enabling the power of collaboration, public scrutiny and comment. IDM explores how information dissemination is exposing political processes and people, leaving them open to the changing face of user-generated content.
With an Australian Federal election just around the corner and the United States candidates already pushing their platforms to follow suit in 2008, user-generated content is throwing the spotlight on politicians more than ever. But with so many voters engaging in collaborative technologies, finding the information they require online and making their opinions known via social networking, it seems politicians can learn a lot from Web 2.0 and would be smart to engage in these latest processes of ‘electronic democracy.’
‘Citizen journalism’ has become a natural phenomena, with blogging, wikis and forums opening themselves to a variety of information streams. E-petitions, e-campaigning, online policy debates and even e-voting have also become realities, just as more individuals across the world are harnessing technologies to not just access global knowledge, but to also contribute to it.
E-democracy in action
The concept of ‘e-democracy’ has been around for over a decade. It’s taken a while to get off the ground but with an increased take-up of technologies for fostering user-generated content, it’s fast becoming a reality for the masses through a number of projects and the increase in user-generated content across the globe.
Steven Clift is charged with coining the term, just as words like ‘teledemocracy’ were floating around back in 1994. “I didn’t realise back in 1994 that I’d done that, but I was the first to combine to words electronic and democracy,” he says. “It even predates terms like e-business and e-commerce.” After years of developing the e-democracy concept by night as he worked in the Minnesota State Government by day, Clift now works full-time, assisting and researching the take-up of e-democracy projects in different regions around the word.
“We citizens get what we ask for,” says Clift. “The ultimate achievement would be a democracy where citizens feel connected and governments can react to that. I want democracy to survive. I just want it enough so it doesn’t die, to be able to give fodder to citizens who are already cynical – but can then go and be cynical online.”
QLD e-democracy
Back in 2001, a key aspect of Queensland Premier Peter Beattie’s election platform was to develop an initiative to reengage the Queensland community. Like other ‘citizen engagement’ initiatives the odds were that it would fail. However with several projects passing the initial pilot phrase and Queenslanders continuing to engage in policy development online, the Queensland e-democracy projects are the most successful examples in Australia.
Dianne Jeans, the Assistant Director General for Smart Services at the Department of Communities believes the success of the program exists in its continuous evolution. “It’s a tool that takes a while to build. On some part it has exceeded, on others you have to build the understanding on what it can offer,” she say.
The e-democracy programmes are accessible via the Queensland Government’s ‘Get Involved’ Website. The online space as well as the commitment from Government to participate, provides the place for citizens to tune into live proceedings of the Government, comment online about key issues of government, search public consultation activities, comment on proposed changes to government regulations, access Government specific information online and start or sign an ePetition.
The online e-petitioning service allows citizens to ‘sign up’ and comment on a specific issue, with signatures sent directly to the minister responsible who in turn have made a commitment to respond. While the e-petitions do not always launch a government department into action, Minister’s do respond, offering their position on the issue. “At least it’s not a black hole,” says Jeans. “Previously, if you signed a petition on the street you would never know if it was heard of again. It doesn’t guarantee an outcome, but it does a response.”
The uptake of Queensland’s e-democracy project could well suggest what people like Clift have been saying for years: Citizens expect democracy to be accessible online and they want to be able to contribute. “We are pleased with the success, our evaluation demonstrates that people who went online to have their say had never really attended government meetings,” says Jeans. “But consultation is not just online now, we see it as a supplementary tool, so there are still forums, letters and regular calls for submissions. We take all of these and put them into a report on consultation.”
Looking forward, Jeans says they’re looking to further engage Web 2.0 technologies for chasing more citizen engagement. “In the future we’re looking to generate more user based content, to take advantage of some of the newer technologies available, especially to engage younger people,” she says. “One of the big things would be to see every MP with a Website.”
Politicians find a space in social networking
A traditional website for politicians is one thing, but throwing them into the Web 2.0 spectra of social networking technologies could really be what citizens are looking for.
One politician spreading his campaign online is Queensland MP, Ronan Lee. The politician uses the page to push his position, his passions and his biography. Without the over-the-top skins and add-ons that you might find in a less professional, more social MySpace Page, Lee keeps his work simple - offering a basic blurb and pics, his general interests and his platform as a politician. His ‘friends’ post comments such as Kevin Rudd for PM!! Yay for Kevin.” Although it’s basic, colloquial and extremely relaxed compared to the usual PR sites of politicians, Lee’s MySpace page extends a hand to a whole new audience, one that desires instant communication, the ability make quick assessments and comments and now exactly what politicians are listening to. “I’m hoping this site and blog will be a good way to keep in touch with local residents in my electorate and also with Queenslanders who share my concerns about protecting our environment, giving young people a bigger voice in government and fighting the Howard Government’s awful industrial relations laws,” Lee writes on his MySpace blog.
The MySpace page of United States Democrat candidate Barack Obama is a little more reserved, with interests kept strictly to his platform as a politician. Of course Obama still has his list of friends, all 161,664 of them, a figure used as a measure of success in his race towards the White House against Hilary Clinton. Commentators have declared the race a ‘cyber war’ of ‘user generated politics.’ At last count, Clinton had only found herself 41875 online friends.
“The next president could definitely be determined by their Internet campaign,” says Clift. “Especially in terms of who runs, it may matter less with the actual election.” Clift points to Obama’s achievement where he as able to generate donations from 100,000 people at $25 a pop, half of these donations were made online.
Just think of the implications this has on the power held by lobby groups that might deliver the necessary funds to launch a full scale political campaign. In the past, this style of fund raising was impractical, no doubt making it easier for candidates to seek funds from a small number of large contributors rather than a large number of small contributors as Obama has done. Is this a possible future for Australia and new manner of politicking?
Finally finding the voters
Although Australian politicians may not appear as prevalently online, the upcoming Australian election is far from immune from e-democracy. “With this upcoming election, we’ll certainly see more than we have seen in the past,” says Ross Dawson chairman of the Future Exploration Network. “It’s a general recognition that voters do spend a lot of time online.”
Post elections, online knowledge sharing can provide Government with the information they need to make Governance work. Often, it can provide the only source of information, to know what the populace is thinking and the knowledge they require on events they might not otherwise have access to. Clift points out the example of the recent revolution in Nepal where the British Embassy found itself exploring what was going on via a Lonely Planet forum contributed to by travellers in the region. However the Embassy was able to contribute, or even post travel advisory information on the site because it was against foreign policy to do so.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office in the UK, Hilary Armstrong has since put out a press release urging the Government for an information review to explore the ‘phenomenon of Internet advice sharing sites and empower people with information that could help improve lives.’
Armstrong has called for a report to assess how the UK Government can help its citizens by harnessing the power of ‘citizen to citizen’ advice that actually includes information from Government. “We need to ensure we build on this, understand how people want to access advice and make sure Government does not fall behind in embracing this interactive age,” she says.
For the UK Government, the interest is not about creating their own web spaces, but to actually enter into the places where people already are.
Media power
In the realm of the Internet, anyone’s a journalist, commentator, analyst and opinion author. It’s the great globalisation of media, one that begs the question about the role of more traditional media in pushing what we know abut democracy.
“Mass media will always exist. People will always want a common perspective on the world. But we are definitely seeing a fragmentation of media,” says Dawson.
Rather than social leaving mass media for dead, Dawson believes we are seeing the emergence of two forms of media that primarily feed off each other. “Often journalists look to online blogs and sources and commentary and will even quote them in their articles. They don’t need to pick up the phone anymore,” says Dawson. “There’s no better way to pick up on trends then to explore the world of social media.”
“Of course there is always the issue of the credibility of the source. But often for credibility, people will simply turn to mainstream media,” says Dawson.
Although citizen journalism is opening the doors for anyone with Internet access to have their say, it may not progress ‘democracy’ but it does improve on the dissemination of information and debate. “In the past we had to rely on press releases and reports for our information, now we have access to everything,” says Dawson.
“As you get input on creating outcomes, emergent results occur, emergent outlines where you can’t predict the outcome,” says Dawson. “Things get better with the more people that use them. You see what’s popular, what’s relevant, different approaches and bringing together of different data-sets.
“Younger people are participating more in their life, governments need to go online and find them,” says Clift. But it’s not necessarily a matter of the generation gap. “I think we sometimes underestimate how much the older generations are taking up e-activity as a way of doing business,” says Jeans.
Of course citizen engagement online can also only go as far as their Internet connections can take them. “We’re looking forward to the day when all of Queensland has access to broadband, it will mean fast access and we all want that,” says Jeans.
A more democratic world?
With all these technologies available and the potential to disseminate and access information of all types, are we moving towards a more democratic existence? According to Clift, much of what was on offer under the banner of Web 1.0 was practically a step backwards for the democratic process. “With Web 1.0 everything was just shovelled through, with Web 2.0 we’re finally moving forward,” he says. “We do have a much more democratic society (since the Internet) whether we have a more democratic government is a different story.”
But with online spaces gaining increased traction, Clift believes it’s about time the Web was harnessed for its potential to replicate what occurs on the outside world. “Our legislatives, parliaments and civil councils have community meetings, they need an online version of that,” he says. “It’s about gathering expertise into the discussion, bringing in somebody off the street who might just know something. It’s not just about creating a ‘gab’ fest online.”