Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung ISI

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  • Publication
    Options for Improving e-Participation at the EU Level
    ( 2019)
    Nielsen, Rasmus O.
    ;
    Hennen, Leonhard
    ;
    Korthagen, Iris
    ;
    Aichholzer, Georg
    ;
    Lindner, Ralf orcid-logo
    In this chapter, Nielsen et al. propose options for improving e-participation at the EU level without changing underlying legal frameworks. In response to the challenges to e-participation, which arise out of current institutional designs, the authors make creative use of the research results presented earlier in the book to suggest 'low-hanging fruits' for practical reform. The challenges addressed include the relative weakness of individual citizens' participation compared to that of CSO's, the weakness of the Parliament in the legislative process and the continued de-coupling of the EU policy process from the will of the European citizens. While the chapter proposes no easy fixes, it points to some obvious practical steps forward. To improve existing participation mechanisms, the authors recommend providing improved support to citizens using the ECI, investing in the back-office support needed for the EP Petitions Portal to realize its potential and improving the scalability of Your Voice in Europe through advanced data analysis. They also make four novel proposals, first among which is to experiment with participatory budgeting in relation to the Regional and Social Funds. The chapter ends with a plea for a long-term vision of a unified European participation structure to gather and harness the potentials of individual mechanisms.
  • Publication
    European e-democracy in practice. Introduction
    ( 2019)
    Hennen, Leonhard
    ;
    Korthagen, Iris
    ;
    Keulen, Ira van
    ;
    Aichholzer, Georg
    ;
    Lindner, Ralf orcid-logo
    ;
    Nielsen, Rasmus O.
    The introductory chapter provides an overview of the volume 'European e-Democracy in Practice'. The focus of the volume is on the exploration of the conditions needed to realise the democratic potential of the broad scope of tools, instruments and procedures to strengthen the ties between established processes of representative democratic decision-making and its constituencies, with a particular view to political communication and decision-making at the European level. Part I of the book provides the outcome of a broad literature review covering the scholarly debate on the achievements and potentials of e-democracy and its relevance for policymaking on the EU level. Part II of the book presents 22 case studies on the use of e-participation tools at the local, national and European levels which were carried out to learn about best practices and major challenges and problems of e-participation in practice. Finally, Part III provides a systematic comparative analysis of the case studies, and based on this analysis and the findings of the literature review, options for improving e-participation at the EU-level are discussed.
  • Publication
    E-Democracy: Conceptual foundations and recent trends
    ( 2019)
    Lindner, Ralf orcid-logo
    ;
    Aichholzer, Georg
    Lindner and Aichholzer provide an introductory overview of the theoretical and conceptual foundations of electronic democracy, thereby providing analytical insights on the interplay between Internet-based communication and democratic processes. To this end, different normative views, aims and approaches of e-democracy are presented and systematically related to the central tenets of the main models of democracy. As e-participation plays an essential role in most conceptions of e-democracy, a typology of Internet-based citizen involvement is developed, thereby structuring the diversity of e-participation practices. Given the growing relevance of Web 2.0 and social media, the chapter discusses to which degree they are able to support core democratic functions of public communication - namely public critique, legitimation, and integration - by exploring the effects of social media usage on the quality of deliberation, political activism and political behaviour. In view of phenomena such as ""personalised politics"", echo chambers and deliberate misinformation, the authors call for effective political, educational and regulatory responses to the democratic challenges social media increasingly pose.