International Journal of Communications Law & Policy

E-VOTE AN EXPERIMENT IN E-DEMOCRACY FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION
By Rachel Howard and Korinna Patelis

Download the Paper in PDF Format: IJCLP Web-Doc 12-8-2004

Abstract

The Internet has become a metaphor for participatory democracy as it promises the democratisation of the political process by opening up radical possibilities for enhancing citizens' participation, increasing access to information, fostering dialogue between actors involved in decision making, and opening up channels of communications between citizens and their elected representatives. This article introduces and reviews an innovative experiment situated at the heart of these promises: e-Vote. E-vote was launched during Greece’s six-month Presidency of the European Union (January-June 2003). It constituted an ambitious experiment to bring e-democracy to the European Union and was designed to probe the potential of the Internet for enhancing citizen participation in European Union decision- and policy-making processes. The experiment was greeted with enthusiasm by Internet users, particularly at times of political crisis. The article draws on the success of e-Vote to argue for the introduction of further initiatives to develop electronic democracy, such as the creation of a virtual demos at the European level. The experience of e-Vote shows that mediated spaces developed to nurture democratic dialogue can fundamentally renew citizens' participation in the European political process and, most importantly, that such fora are definitely in demand by citizens.

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