edemocracy

HUL 291: Electronic Governance

P. Vigneswara IlavarasanMS 624 | [email protected]

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mailto:[email protected]

Agenda

• Context• E‐government• ICTs & Democratization process• E‐democracy• Areas of convergence

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Context• Insights from ‘democracy’ studies to egovernance

• Overlapping• Beyond mere use of ICTs• More on a theoretical level• Fountain’s work as example for egovernmentstudies

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egovernment• Egov assumptions – transparency, efficiency, and productivity

• e‐democracy as an integral part of egov, but inadequately discussed and forgotten

• Democratization– make govt. services more like private ‐ convenient, access, & timeliness

– brining closer to people

• radical arguments ‐ to make it more citizen inclusive

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ICTs & Democractization

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• evolution of ICTs important for democratization process– Integration of multiple devices– Interoperability

• usage of ICTs in govt. reflected in the govt. and citizen's attitudes– welfare states ; modern / efficient state; & post fordist

• ubiquitous networking ‐ challenges the status quo– from inward looking mainframe computers outward facing networks

ICTs & Demo. Cont.

• Govt as learning organization ‐ work with ICT enabled constant feedback mechanism from the citizens –– 'build and learn’

• Challenges– resistance to sharing of private data across agencies– disagreements on what kind of data can be shared and with whom

– possible conflicts between executives and legislatures– difficult to demonstrate the pay‐off

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E-democracy• political participation by interconnected citizens & representatives via new ICTs– Consultation & deliberations

• Interaction as constitutive of democracy• Continuum of consultation

– information gathering quasi deliberations– vertical flow of state‐citizen communication

• Deliberations – more complex, horizontal, & multi directionality interactivity

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E-dem. Cont…

• knowledge is discursive, contingent, and changeable and emerges through interaction

• positive & organic deliberative mechanisms – p2p, chat rooms, blogs, bulletin boards etc

• quality & density of public sphere is more important than speed

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Akshat

Highlight

Here, we are trying to say, that while discussing we are neglecting the fact the democracy also slows down the decision making process. What is more important for us is following the democracy principle rather that productivity or efficiency, IN THIS PAPER

E-dem… cont..

• increasing role of civil society

• building new cyber society

• accelerated pluralism

• e democracy is not utopian (bribe)

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Akshat

Comment on Text

civil society basically consists of the NGOs. The more the NGOs are there in a place, it shows the more the active the ppl. are and the more inactive the government is. Because NGOs basically do the work that should have been done by the government.

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Highlight

pluralism is defined by the act in which a person is part of multiple groups all having different viewpoints.

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Highlight

utopian is a way of governance in which everything is ideal. Its a hypothetical concept

Convergence with egovt.1. Intergration of e‐democractic activities in

civil society with policy making processes – at local and national levels– govt. agencies / dept. interact with the citizens ‐‐> – need of parliament to embrace the change, else decreasing value of parliament

– More power to executives?

• Ex: Common Wealth Games

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Akshat

Highlight

the argument we are trying to make here is that, for CWG there was no consensus made among people before deciding whether CWG should be held or not.

2. Internal democratization of public sector

• reflecting the way govt. interacts with the citizens

• Egov. not reinforcing inequalities & power hierarchies?– Ex: Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosure Bill, 2010

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3. Politics of convenience

• want of easiness to interact with the govt. = consumerism?

• refelct the post‐industrial politics – centralized, controlled, massive decentralized, independent units & networked

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4. Use of neutral technologies in egov

• technologies should reflect democratic values• open source?• rise of open standards..• Ex:

– Govt. websites– STQC

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Akshat

Sticky Note

As per Chadwick, there are several problems with collaboration between different government offices. The problems are as follows: 1. These initiatives are thus resisted by the different government officials, as it will increase the load on the officials by Request for Information 2. The increased sharing of information will lead to increased conflicts between various governments. 3. It is difficult to port the old legacy systems, for collaboration because they are not at all interoperable.

NIC home..

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I paid a bribe..

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References• Chadwick, A. (2003). Bringing e‐democracy back in: Why it

matters for future research on e‐governance. Social Science Computer Review, 21 (4), 443‐455.

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• Thank you!

ClarificationsQuestions

Comments

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Central Vigilance Commission <<

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GoI Schemes <<

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National Informatics Center <

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edemocracy

Education

commonwealthgames vignesh

icts democractization

websites stqc vignesh

interactswiththe citizens

electronic governance

cont knowledgeisdiscursive

socialscience computerreview

neutral technologies