Democracy in an IT-framed society: introduction
Åke Grönlund · Communications of the ACM · 2001
In this article, the author states that interest in the use of computers for improving a democracy widely considered decayed seems to be increasing with the growing use of the Internet. Search for "electronic democracy" on AltaVista yielded well over 5,000 pages; much of the material discusses projects trying to make an impact on democratic practices. Electronic democracy, sometimes teledemocracy or digital democracy, are terms often used synonymously to refer to the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to connect politicians and citizens by means of information, voting, polling, or discussion. The argument is that the role of the electronic medium in the democratic system extends far beyond electronic town hall meetings and polling. The use of ICT permeates most activities related to societal planning, governance, and political organization, including organization in the civil society; which means using ICT also has implications for working democracy in representative systems. Therefore, to understand the role of ICT in the working process of the democratic system, e-democracy research should be framed in a context encompassing all aspects of the system.