THE CONSEQUENCES OF DIGITAL INTERACTIVITY FOR

DEMOCRATICPOLITICS

Professor Stephen Coleman

Oxford Internet Institute

• Technology does not shape history

• Democracy as an incomplete work in progress

Need for democratisation of democracy

• Democracy, as a relationship, is out of step with contemporary culture

There is a connection waiting to be made between the decline in democratic participation and the explosion in new ways of communicating. We need not accept the paradox that gives us more ways than ever to speak, and leaves the public with a wider feeling than ever before that their voices are not being heard. The new technologies can strengthen our democracy, by giving us greater opportunities than ever before for better transparency and a more responsive relationship between government and electors (Robin Cook, former Leader, UK House of Commons, 2002)

ICT can facilitate the exchange of ideas and increase participation in the decision-making process. Policy formulation requires better understanding complex and charged issues, for which ICT offers a new means. Those who previously felt disenfranchised by remote and complex systems now have a means to directly influence the decision-making. (Erkki Liikanen, EU Commissioner)

In the past listeners, readers and viewers were only told how the world looks. Today they want to be taken seriously as partners in a dialogue. If media, government and the politicians can work it all out, and if society can realise a targeted strategy for the use of new technologies, I am convinced that the new digital road will lead to a democracy that it exciting to be part of. (Birt Weiss, Danish minister of IT)

Governments must use new technologies such as the internet to empower citizens and provide them with a greater ability to scrutinise and influence Government decisions and actions. (Paul Martin, PM, Canada)

A TYPOLOGY OF POLITICAL A TYPOLOGY OF POLITICAL DISCONNECTIONDISCONNECTION

DistanceCloseness

Detachment

Empathy Aloofness

ExclusivityCoherence

Mutuality

THE SCOPE FOR DEMOCRATIC THE SCOPE FOR DEMOCRATIC RECONNECTIONRECONNECTION

online surgeries – videoconferencing

virtual communities – email lists

online consultations

blogging – multimedia ‘reality’ TV

CopresesnceCloseness

Network Mutuality

Self-Disclosure

Dialogue

Empathy

Coherence

RESEARCH AGENDA• Institutional adaptation • Evaluating the impacts of e-democracy initiatives• Scalability of public inputs to participatory

governance• Recognising/respecting the informal edges of

democracy• Creating supranational/cosmopolitan spaces for

global accountability

Contact:

Oxford Internet InstituteUniversity of Oxford1 St GilesOxford OX1 3JSUnited Kingdom

Email: Stephen.Coleman@oii.ox.ac.uk