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Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung ISI
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PublicationProspects for e-democracy in Europe. Part II: Case studies(European Union, 2018)
;Korthagen, Iris ;Keulen, Ira van ;Dorst, Hade ;Aichholzer, Georg ;Rose, Gloria ;Nielsen, Rasmus O. ;Freundlich, Casper ;Goos, KerstinHennen, LeonhardThe growing use of ICT tools and social media significantly affects the way citizens can become involved in policy- and decision-making processes. Digital tools might create stronger connections between European citizens and the EU decision-making process and, by doing so, might contribute to reducing the EU democratic deficit. At local and national level, and to some extent also at EU level, digital tools have already been used for citizen involvement in policy- and decision-making. This part of the report investigates what lessons can be drawn from local, national and Europe an experiences of the use of digital tools for the functioning of EU decision-making procedures and institutions. For that purpose, a review of current literature on e-democracy and the European public sphere has been carried out (see part 1 of the study); 22 local, national and EU experiences with existing digital tools have been investigated and evaluated; and an analysis has been made of the suitability of the most promising digital tools for implementation and use at EU level (see part 3 of the study).The most important factors for successful e-participation identified in the report are: a close and clear link of e-participation processes to a concrete formal decision-making process; the participatory process and the contribution of its outputs to the overall decision-making process have to be clarified to the participants from the start; feedback to the participants about what has been done with their contributions is an indispensable feature of the process; a participative process should not be limited to one event but should be imbedded in an institutional ""culture of participation""; e-participation must be accompanied by an effective mobilization and engagement strategy, involving three communication instruments tailored for different target groups. -
PublicationProspects for e-democracy in Europe. Part I: Literature review(European Union, 2018)
;Aichholzer, Georg ;Rose, Gloria ;Hennen, Leonhard ;Goos, Kerstin ;Korthagen, Iris ;Keulen, Ira vanNielsen, Rasmus O.A long-standing and continuing democratic deficit of the European Union is detected in public and scholarly debate. This democratic deficit is explained by the complex and mutually reinforcing mix of institutional design features of the EU and it is held to contribute to a lacking sense of European citizenship and the negative and nation-oriented public discourse around the EU. It is still believed by many that the perceived democratic deficit of the European Union indicates the need for fostering a European public sphere as a space of debate across national public spheres. Moreover, there is a consensus that the new modes of political communication and participation via the internet can play a role in that respect. Redressing the democratic deficit is obviously a daunting task which cannot be accomplished through the introduction of e-participation tools alone. Far-reaching expectations of a fundamental reform of modern democracy through the application of online participatory tools are vanishing after two decades of e-democracy. However, if properly designed and implemented, eparticipation has the potential to contribute to accountability and transparency, trans-nationalisation and politicisation of public debates, and the improvement of exchanges and interactions between EU decision-making and European citizens. A common critique on e-participation practices at the EU-level is that they are a successful civic instrument but not a convincing policy instrument. Many eparticipative projects suffer from a lack of direct, or even indirect, political or policy impact but seem to provide personal added value for participants and community building. -
PublicationProspects for e-democracy in Europe. Part III: Policy options(European Union, 2018)
;Nielsen, Rasmus O. ;Korthagen, Iris ;Keulen, Ira van ;Hennen, Leonhard ;Aichholzer, Georg ;Rose, GloriaGoos, KerstinIn order to make e-participation tools at the EU level more successful, we provide four policyoptions: 1) Stimulate experiments with participatory budgeting in relation to the Regional and Social Funds since e-budgeting produces the strongest results when it comes to impact on decision-making. 2) Expand online engagement with MEPs beyond petitions, particularly through the introductionof a public functionality for posing questions to MEPs and their staff.3) Create a platform for monitoring Member State actions during Council decisions, since keyinformation is simply not available through ordinary channels. 4) Explore crowdsourcing of policy ideas for the European Commission. Early-stage policy development could benefit from open and frank sharing of ideas between citizens, Commissioners and their staff. -
PublicationProspects for e-democracy in Europe. Study summary(European Union, 2018)
;Korthagen, Iris ;Keulen, Ira van ;Hennen, Leonhard ;Aichholzer, Georg ;Rose, Gloria ;Goos, KerstinNielsen, Rasmus O.Digital tools could create stronger connections between European citizens and the EU decision-making process and, by doing so, might contribute to reducing the EU democraticdeficit. This report investigates what lessons can be drawn from local, national and European experiences of the use of digital tools for the functioning of EU decision-making procedures and institutions. For that purpose, a review of current literature on e-democracy and the European public sphere has been carried out; 22 local, national and EU experiences with existing digital tools have been investigated and evaluated; and an analysis has been made of the suitability of the most promising digital tools for implementation and use at EU level.The most important factors for successful e-participation identified in the report are: a close and clear link between eparticipation processes and a concrete formal decision-makingprocess; the participatory process and the contribution of its outputs to the overall decision-making process have to be clear to participants from the start; feedback to the participantsabout what has been done with their contributions is an indispensable feature of the process; a participative process should not be limited to one event but should be imbedded in an institutional 'culture of participation'; e-participation must be accompanied by an effective mobilisation and engagement strategy, involving communication instruments tailored fordifferent target groups. -
PublicationProspects for e-democracy in Europe. Briefing. STOA Options Brief(European Union, 2018)
;Korthagen, Iris ;Keulen, Ira van ;Dorst, Hade ;Aichholzer, Georg ;Rose, Gloria ;Nielsen, Rasmus O. ;Freundlich, Casper ;Goos, KerstinHennen, Leonhard