Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
•
but is it also about getting people to interact with Government between
elections, allowing them to raise topics they want discussed, and influ-
encing Government policy, including participating in on-line discussion
fora.
The aim of the proposed policy is to take advantage of the new tech-
nologies' potential to encourage people to participate in the democratic
process.
There are three stated objectives:
•
facilitating participation in the democratic process: making it easier for
people to collect public information, follow the political process, discuss
and form groups on political issues, scrutinise government and vote in
elections;
•
broadening participation by opening up a range of new channels for de-
mocratic communication - this may enable involvement from people
who in the past may have felt excluded from the democratic process or
unable to participate;
•
deepening participation by creating a closer link between citizens and
their representatives (http://www.e-democracy.gov.uk).
This policy has given rise to two activity streams, concerned respec-
tively with e-voting and with e-participation.
Voting systems are fundamental to the democratic process, and many
governments are concerned about low or falling levels of turnout at elections.
Fig. 3.3.
Difficulties in using machines.
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