Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

EU u-Government: A Solution for More Citizen Participation in EU Policy-Making

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Euroscepticism, Democracy and the Media

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology ((PSEPS))

  • 1692 Accesses

Abstract

EU democracy has been traditionally practised through representation. This chapter argues that more citizen participation in EU policy-making is plausible, thanks to ubiquitous computing, mixed reality technology and virtual spaces. Current technology and IT services can remedy problems of time and space, the biggest obstacles for active civic involvement in EU governance. The chapter starts with the advantages and disadvantages of applying ubiquitous government (u-government) in policy-making. The following section investigates how practising democracy at EU level can be facilitated through u-government, augmenting citizen participation in EU governance. The third section proposes a conceptual model for using mixed reality technology and u-government in the EU context. The conclusion briefly reflects on the future of citizen participation in the frame of an EU e-democracy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Anttiroiko, A.V. 2006. Towards Ubiquitous Government: The Case of Finland. E-Service Journal 4(1): 65–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Badouard, R. 2010. Pathways and Obstacles to eParticipation at the European Level. Journal of eDemocracy 2(2): 99–110.

    Google Scholar 

  • BMRB International. 2002. Public Attitudes towards the Implementation of Electronic Voting (Qualitative Research Report). http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/electoral_commission_pdf_file/0008/16100/Implementationofe-votingpublicattitudesannex_6723-6271__E__N__S__W__.pdf. Accessed 16 Dec 2013.

  • Bohman, J. 2007. Democracy across Borders: From Dêmos to Dêmoi. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caiani, M., and L. Parenti. 2013. European and American Extreme Right Groups and the Internet. Farnham: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chryssochoou, D. 2001. The Nature of Democracy in the European Union and the Limits of Treaty Reform. Current Politics and Economics in Europe 10(3): 245–264.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clift, S. 2000. The E-Democracy E-Book: Democracy Is Online 2.0. http://www.publicus.net/ebook/edemebook.html#egov. Accessed 25 Feb 2013.

  • Dahl, R. 1998. On Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dryzek, J.S. 1999. Transnational Democracy. The Journal of Political Philosophy 7(1): 30–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, S. 1994. What Are Virtual Environments? Computer Graphics and Applications, IEEE 14(1): 17–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eriksen, E.O., and J.E. Fossum. 2000. Post-National Integration. In Democracy in the European Union: Integration Through Deliberation?, ed. E.O. Eriksen and J.E. Fossum. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2008. A Done Deal?: The EU’s Legitimacy Conundrum Revisited. In Law, Democracy and Solidarity in a Post-National Union: The Unsettled Political Order of Europe, ed. E.O. Eriksen, C. Joerges and F. Rödl. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2011. Representation Through Deliberation: The European Case. ARENA Working Papers 5: 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • European Commission. undated 1. Digital Agenda: Europe’s Strategy for a Flourishing Digital Economy by 2020. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52010DC0245R%2801%29:EN:NOT. Accessed 26 Feb 2013.

  • European Commission. undated 2. Online Privacy. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/online-privacy. Accessed 20 Feb 2016.

  • European Commission. undated 3. Online Trust. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/online-trust. Accessed 20 Feb 2016.

  • Ferro, E., E.N. Loukis, Y. Charalabidis, and M. Osella. 2013. Policy Making 2.0: From Theory to Practice. Government Information Quarterly 30: 359–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, J., and S. Quirke. 2013. Understanding E-Democracy Government-Led Initiatives for Democratic Reform. JeDEM-eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government 5(2): 141–154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedrich, D. 2011. Democratic Participation and Civil Society in the European Union. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, M., and B. Horan. 2011. Using Virtual Worlds for Online Role-Play. Proceedings of the 1st European Immersive Education Summit, Madrid.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. 2012. The Crisis of the European Union: A Response. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hilbert, M. 2007. Digital Processes and Democratic Theory: Dynamics, Risk and Opportunities When Democratic Institutions Meet Digital Information and Communication Technologies. http://www.martinhilbert.net/democracy.html. Accessed 20 Feb 2016.

  • Kohler-Koch, B. 2007. The Organization of Interests and Democracy in the European Union. In Debating the Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union, ed. B. Kohler-Koch and B. Rittberger. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2011. The Three Worlds of “European Civil Society”: Different Images of Europe and Different Roles for Civil Society. In The New Politics of European Civil Society, ed. U. Liebert and H.J. Trenz. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohler-Koch, B., and C. Quittkat. 2011. What Is “Civil Society” and Who Represents It in the European Union? In The New Politics of European Civil Society, ed. U. Liebert and H.J. Trenz. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCormick, J.P. 2007. Weber, Habermas, and Transformations of the European State: Constitutional, Social, and Supranational Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Milgram, P., and F. Kishino. 1994. A Taxonomy of Virtual Reality Displays. IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems 1(12): 1321–1329.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, D. 1994. The Nation State: A Modest Defence. In Political Restructuring in Europe: Ethical Perspectives, ed. C. Brown. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moravcsik, A. 2003. In Defence of the ‘Democratic Deficit’: Reassessing Legitimacy in the European Union. In Integration in an Expanding European Union: Reassessing the Fundamentals, ed. J.H.H. Weiler, I. Begg, and J. Peterson. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moreno-Jiménez, J.M., C. Pérez-Espés, and M. Velázquez. 2013. e-Cognocracy and the Design of Public Policies. Government Information Quarterly 30: 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norris, D.F. 2010. E-government... Not e-Governance... Not e-Democracy: Not Now! Not Ever? In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV’10), ed. J. Davies and T. Janowski. New York: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oja, M. 2008. Electronic Government in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing (Thesis), University of Lübeck, International School of New Media, Lübeck.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oja, M., and A. Schrader. 2008. From Internet to Internet of Things—The Evolution of U-Government. Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference WWW/Internet 2008, Freiburg, pp. 344–348.

    Google Scholar 

  • Okot-Uma, R.W. 2001. Electronic Governance: (Leading to Good Government). In Electronic Governance and Electronic Democracy: Living and Working in the Connected World. Ottawa: The Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance.

    Google Scholar 

  • OneEurope. undated. The Green Primary—You Decide Europe. http://one-europe.info/initiative/the-green-primary-you-decide-europe-1. Accessed 17 May 2016.

  • Poblet, M. 2011. Rule of Law on the Go: New Developments of Mobile Governance. Journal of Universal Computer Science 17(3): 498–512.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prensky, M. 2001. Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1. On the Horizon 9(5): 1–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ridgway, B. 2006. Ubiquitous Government: Enabling Innovation in a Connected World, Microsoft Asia-Pacific. http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/1/9/b19569da-edeb-4206-9966-9890b00cd42a/ubiquitous_government.pdf. Accessed 25 Feb 2013.

  • Riley, T.B. 2001. Electronic Governance in Context. In Electronic Governance and Electronic Democracy: Living and Working in the Connected World. Ottawa: The Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance. http://www.electronegov.net. Accessed 16 December 2013.

  • Runciman, D. 2007. The Paradox of Political Representation. The Journal of Political Philosophy 15(1): 93–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saward, M. 1998. The Terms of Democracy. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, V.A. 2006. Democracy in Europe: The EU and National Polities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tserpes, K, M. Jacovi, M. Gardner, A. Triantafillou., and B. Cohen. 2010. +Spaces: Intelligent Virtual Spaces for eGovernment. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Intelligent Environments 2010 (IE’10), IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, pp. 318–323.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tully, J. 2008. Public Philosophy in a New Key, Volume I: Democracy and Civic Freedom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 2012. United Nations E-Government Survey 2012. http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan048065.pdf. Accessed 25 Feb 2013.

  • Warren, M. 2009a. Two Trust-Based Uses of Minipublics in Democracy. Paper Presentation at American Political Science Association Meeting, Toronto.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009b. Citizen Participation and Democratic Deficits: Considerations from the Perspective of Democratic Theory. In Activating the Citizen: Dilemmas of Participation in Europe and Canada, ed. J. Debardeleben and J. Pammett. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiser, M. 1991. The Computer for the 21st Century. Scientific American 265(3): 94–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zalesak, M. 2002. m-Government: Definition and Perspectives (Interview), e-Government, the Development Gateway. http://zunia.org/sites/default/files/media/node-files/za/131432_Zalesak.pdf. Accessed 16 Dec 2013.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Security Studies (C4SS), Metropolitan University Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

    Evangelos Fanoulis

  2. School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, Colchester, UK

    Anasol Peña-Rios

Authors
  1. Evangelos Fanoulis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anasol Peña-Rios
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Evangelos Fanoulis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Scuola Normale Superiore, Firenze, Italy

    Manuela Caiani

  2. University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

    Simona Guerra

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Fanoulis, E., Peña-Rios, A. (2017). EU u-Government: A Solution for More Citizen Participation in EU Policy-Making. In: Caiani, M., Guerra, S. (eds) Euroscepticism, Democracy and the Media. Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59643-7_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59643-7_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-59642-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-59643-7

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation