Title: The impact of electronic government on democracy: e-democracy through e-participation

Authors: Grigorios Spirakis, Christina Spiraki, Konstantinos Nikolopoulos

Addresses: Department of Public Economy Service, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Paralio Astros 22019, Greece. ' General Hospital of Nafplio, 8 Asklipiou str., Nafplio 21100, Greece. ' Strategic Economic Modeling and Policy Laboratory, School of Business and Economics, University of Peloponnese, Tripolis 22100, Greece

Abstract: Electronic government is the use of Information and Communication Technology in the transformation of government; primarily aiming to the improvement of accessibility, effectiveness and responsibility. It is based on the diffusion of the information and the information policy development. Electronic government guides to increasing citizens| participation and active citizens| development affecting the mechanisms of democracy. Electronic democracy (e-democracy) includes technological innovations that allow improvement and empowerment of democratic institutions with or without the use of internet. E-democracy aims the production of functional democratic processes like communication, information providing and decision-making after electronic public dialogue and voting. E-democracy is the cornerstone in a social system as citizens can have an active participation in the public issues. This paper describes the electronic government implementations promoting electronic democracy through electronic participation (e-participation) and appearing benefits for the citizens, the enterprises, the public administration and the society.

Keywords: e-government; ICT; information technology; communications technology; information policy; e-democracy; e-participation; public dialogue; electronic voting; electronic government; electronic democracy; electronic participation; technological innovation; empowerment; public administration.

DOI: 10.1504/EG.2010.029892

Electronic Government, an International Journal, 2010 Vol.7 No.1, pp.75 - 88

Published online: 02 Dec 2009 *

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