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This paper examines action to address the growing political apathy facing many European countries through the possibility of renewing democracy at the local level using e-democracy. We describe the reasons why we need to develop e-democracy tools to support local decision-making and report on work in progress on a project to support wider democratic participation using ICT to support community councils. This project is developing a “community e-democracy model” supported by “community e-democracy tools” that will help to achieve the kind of dialogue and engagement between Community Councils and local communities that will support democratic decision making processes. The research work we are undertaking has the potential to provide a framework for e-democracy at local community, and in so doing contribute knowledge to a broad range of strategy and planning policies.
This paper focuses on the need to develop e-democracy tools and techniques to create new opportunities for democratic participation at the community level. E-democracy is concerned with the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to engage citizens, support the democratic decision-making processes and strengthen representative democracy [1]. The principal ICT mechanism is the internet accessed through an increasing variety of channels, including PCs, both in the home and in public locations, mobile phones, and interactive digital TV.
The democratic decision making processes can be usefully divided into two main categories: one addressing the electoral process, including legally-binding e-voting, and the other addressing citizen e-participation in democratic decision-making. Several commentators have discussed the use of technology to support the democratic process. Coleman and Gøtze [2] have outlined four possible scenarios for technology supporting democracy. Becker and Slaton [3] have explored the current state and future of e-democracy initiatives that are designed specifically to move towards direct democracy, while Tsagarousianou et al. [4], have provided descriptions of a number of projects involved with e-democracy and civic networking.
Our work takes as its primary focus e-participation. The notion of e-participation and responsible citizenship brings attention to bear on access to information, the nature of participation in public debate and opportunities for communities to provide input to political decision-making and policy formulation [5]. The overarching objective of our work is to investigate renewing local democracy by enabling people and communities throughout Scotland to have greater influence over factors affecting their lives. We address this objective by investigating how ICTs can enable the renewal of democracy at the local level.
Our work specifically addresses the important aspect of democracy at the local community level through e-democracy. We argue that geographical communities need e-business, e-government transaction services and e-democracy. A large number of existing initiatives in Scotland focus on access to e-business opportunities and access to e-government public services, very few projects have as their primary focus renewing local democracy through e-democracy.
It is clear from the increasingly low turnout at elections that traditional democratic processes do not effectively engage people. In the May 2003 elections to the Scottish Parliament the average turnout was 49.4% as compared to 59% in 1999 [6]. In one constituency of Glasgow only 35.41% voted. The situation in local government is even worse. The City of Edinburgh Council May 2003 election results demonstrate this. All wards showed a fall in turnout with an average drop in turnout of 9.71%. with the lowest turnout being just 36.7%. There is a clear need to renew democracy at the local level by considering new engagement tools and techniques.
The issue of the digital divide [7] and its implications for e-democracy needs consideration. For several years, a major concern in many countries has been the consequence of unequal access, lack of proper infrastructure and low adoption of technology. This has created a digital divide, excluding many, particularly those in already socially disadvantaged groups, from the perceived benefits of the information society. The digital divide is not just about lack of access to technology due to financial factors but also about lack of use due to low levels of awareness, interest, understanding and acceptance of new ways of working.
To address this digital divide, much emphasis has been placed on expanding the communication infrastructure, in particular extending the availability of broadband services. However, problems attached to the Digital Divide are not only related to a lack of telecommunications infrastructure, but to poverty, lack of awareness, and low skill levels [8]. Recognising this, a number of projects have been initiated in Scotland concerned with access to ICT, skills to use ICT and content to motivate use of ICTs [9]. This project is not intending to replicate this work but rather learn from it.
International, national and local governments and agencies make decisions which fundamentally affect the lives of citizens. Organisational complexity and an increasing pace of change are making it increasingly difficult for individuals and community groups to even know about, far less engage in, decision making processes. Communities require easy to use ways of accessing and sharing information and ideas, responding to consultations and participating in policy formulation. The rapidly expanding public access to the internet offers an opportunity to individuals and community groups to discuss issues together and lobby government for policy changes.
Community councils are the local tier of the statutory framework of democracy in Scotland. They are small, local groups and there are 1160 Community Councils across Scotland. They typically each have 12 elected members who represent a small population spread across both small and large geographical areas, depending on the urban or rural nature of their location. Community Councils are by law, made up of members of their own community. As such they have direct access to and from their constituents at a more detailed daily level than most politicians or local authority councillors. They live in the community they serve, know personally many of the issues and can readily judge the impact of new or changed policies and suggestions from government. Currently they represent their constituents as best they can, relying on word-of-mouth and may therefore not be as inclusive as they otherwise might be. They are often given little time to consider fairly major proposals before their considered input is required. They interact with neighbouring Community Councils, local groups and national organisations (e.g. the ASCC or Association of Scottish Community Councils). There is a need for better mechanisms for them to be consulted as representing their neighbourhoods, but further for them to have tools to enable them to reach their constituents. Democracy is and should be a bottom-up process.
The project is developing a “community e-democracy model” supported by “community e-democracy tools” that will help to achieve the kind of dialogue and engagement between Community Councils and local communities that will support a broad range of work. The community e-democracy model is:
The community e-democracy tools are being developed so as to support agencies to engage with individuals and groups by facilitating:
The project has two phases each lasting one year and each with its own aims and deliverables. In this first phase a model and corresponding on-line tools are being developed for a target community council that is currently familiar with, and using IT to conduct some aspects of their work. This is the Strathfillan Community Council based in Crianlarich. The results from the 2001/2002 Scottish Household Survey [10] indicate that on average 43% of households in this area have access to the internet, this can be compared to an average of 35% for the whole of Scotland in that same reporting period.
The community is basically a rural one. There are 10 councilors all proficient in IT and they all have access to a PC and internet connection from their homes. By focusing on this IT literate group the impact of some of the known variables - in particular access to and familiarity with technology - is minimised. At the end of year one, and after piloting and evaluation, the initial model and tools will then be generalised and tested again with five other Community Councils with varying degrees of literacy and covering both urban and rural communities. The results of this second phase will allow an overall roll out mechanism for Community Councils and other community groups in a region to be developed.
All the participating Community Councils are being actively engaged in deciding the ‘look & feel’ and functionality of the on-line democracy tools in order to ensure a feeling of ownership in their future use and development. The pilot tools are:
1. E-consulting. An internet based tool to support Community Councils to gather the opinions about issues from communities. This will allow users to express views on what they want preserved or changed, and so provide a basis for Community Councils to identify collective local policy issues.
2. E-information. An internet based tool for content management which will provide efficient ways of summarising and disseminating appropriate information to community groups throughout Scotland by allowing the groups to contribute news items of interest and to exchange views with other groups.
3. E-voting. An internet based tool to support participative (non-legally binding) voting and lobbying. This will support decentralised voting and counting and will inform voters on the purpose of the voting, the issues under consideration, the voting process, arrangements for the counting of the votes and the subsequent results.
The Community Council web site and associated e-democracy tools are being designed in a modular fashion to allow new e-democracy tools to be added if and when appropriate.
The overarching objective of our work is to investigate renewing local democracy by enabling people and communities throughout Scotland to have greater influence over factors affecting their lives. We address this objective by investigating how ICTs can support community councils. This involves assessing the democratic requirements of community councils and other community groups using ICT in local settings, developing appropriate ICT based democratic community systems and subsequently evaluating their effectiveness and impact. The challenge is to examine ways in which ICT can contribute to democratic participation in local geographic communities.
The results of our work will be an assessment of ‘local’ democratic needs, the e-democracy tools to meet these needs, and recommendations to suggest how best practice e-democracy systems should be rolled out in local communities across Scotland. The work will provide a framework to better appreciate the significance of technology in supporting democracy at local community level, and in so doing enable wider and deeper participation in community planning. In seeking to consult communities, listen to their democratic needs, and consider their perceptions, the work will help to include communities themselves in establishing policy to improve the quality of citizenship across Scotland. Importantly, the work will provide a better appreciation of the significance of technology in supporting e-democracy at local community level, and in so doing contribute to the modernising government agenda of the Scottish Executive.
This project is being conducted in partnership with the Association of Community Councils for the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park area, Stirling Assembly, the Association of Scottish Community Councils, Stirling Council and with the support of Dr Sylvia Jackson MSP. We acknowledge the support of our partners in writing this paper. Thanks are also due to the Scottish Executive for their support in funding this work.
1. Macintosh, A., 2004. Characterizing E-Participation in Policy-Making. Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-37), January 5 – 8, 2004, Hawaii.
2. Coleman, S. and J. Gøtze, 2001. Bowling Together: Online Public Engagement in Policy Deliberation. Hansard Society and BT, London.
3. Becker, T. and C. Slaton, 2000. The Future of Teledemocracy, Westport, Conn. LC.
4. Tsagarousianou, R., D. Tambini and C. Bryan, 1998. Cyberdemocracy: Technology, Cities and Civic Networks, Routledge, London.
5. OECD, 2004. Promises and problems of e-democracy; Challenges of Citizen on-line Engagement. OECD, Paris.
6. www.scottish.parliament.uk/research/briefings-03/sb03-25.pdf
7. Norris, P., 2001. Digital Divide: Civic Engagement Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. Cambridge University Press, USA.
8. Wilhem, Anthony, 2000. Democracy in the digital age: Challenges to political life in cyberspace. Routledge, London.
9. Malina, A., and Macintosh, A., 2003. Bridging the Digital Divide: Supporting e-democracy. In M. Malkia, A. Anttiroiko and R. Savolainen (eds); eTransformation in Governance – new directions in Government and Politics. Idea Group Publishing, US. pp 255-271.
10. www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/finance/spv7-28.asp#610