Technology and democracy: the who and how in decision-making. The cases of Estonia and Catalonia

Rosa Borge; Joaquim Brugué; David Duenas Cid

doi:10.3145/epi.2022.may.11

Technology and democracy: the who and how in decision-making. The cases of Estonia and Catalonia

Abstract

This paper focuses on the use of technology to improve democracy, comparing the cases of Estonia and Catalonia. Both examples are closely related in their use of technology to further democratize the decision-making processes but have opposite starting points. Estonia’s internet voting system is an offshoot of the comprehensive e-governance system developed by the Estonian government. It is meant to make it more convenient for people to vote and, thus, easier for them to take part in elections. In Catalonia, the online participation system Decidim, initially set up in the city of Barcelona, represents a bottom-up project that emerged from the 15 May protests and aims to make the representative democratic system more direct and participatory. In our comparison, we approach both paradigmatic cases from a theoretical reflection on the ideal types of democracy in relation to how decisions are made and by whom. Both projects have evolved and integrated new features that draw them together. First, internet voting is able to reach wider portions of society and digitally transform the Public Administration. Second, online participation platforms increase the potential for collecting citizens’ proposals and enriching discussions. These features make them more like a mixed model which, in the current model of representative democracy, creates spaces for more direct and deliberative democracy.

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Keywords

INTERNET VOTING, ONLINE PARTICIPATION, DIGITAL PLATFORMS, REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY, AGGREGATIVE DEMOCRACY, DIRECT DEMOCRACY, DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY, ESTONIA, CATALONIA, DECIDIM

Details

Category:

Articles

Type:

artykuły w czasopismach

Published in:

Profesional de la Informacion no. 31,
ISSN: 1386-6710

Language:

English

Publication year:

2022

Bibliographic description:

Borge R., Brugué J., Duenas Cid D.: Technology and democracy: the who and how in decision-making. The cases of Estonia and Catalonia// Profesional de la Informacion -Vol. 31,iss. 3 (2022), s.e31031-

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