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Electronic Democracy in Europe: An Introduction

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Electronic Democracy in Europe

Abstract

With the rise of the WWW as a platform for mass media, the question of the Internet’s potential to change politics and democratic decision-making quickly captured the attention of many researchers and practitioners. Despite an impressive body of literature and numerous experiences with the political dimension of the new media technologies, there are still many uncertainties regarding the interplay of the Internet and political processes in contemporary representative democracies. What is more, the specific challenges of electronic democracy related to the unique institutional makeup and governance processes of the European Union remain uncharted territory.

As this book focuses on the intersection of electronic democracy and European politics, the introduction to “Electronic Democracy in Europe” provides a concise overview of the debate on the Internet’s potential to change democratic politics, thereby contextualizing the discussion within fundamental normative views of the democratic process. With regard to the European dimension, this chapter also sets the stage for the ensuing parts of the book by describing relevant trends in European governance. These developments are discussed in terms of their enabling and constraining influence on electronic democracy at European level. The chapter closes with a brief outline of the three parts of the book—e-public, e-participation and e-voting.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The project “E-democracy: Technical possibilities of the use of electronic voting and other Internet tools in European elections” (IP/A/STOA/FWC/2008-96/LOT4/CI/SC2) ran from January 2010 to September 2011. The official report is available at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/etudes/join/2011/471584/IPOL-JOIN_ET(2011)471584_EN.pdf [accessed June 20, 2015].

  2. 2.

    For these optimistic accounts see for example Rheingold (1993), Negroponte (1995), Budge (1996), and Grossman (1995).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), Breslauer Straße 48, Karlsruhe, 76139, Germany

    Ralf Lindner

  2. Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA), Austrian Academy of Sciences, Strohgasse 45/5, Vienna, 1030, Austria

    Georg Aichholzer

  3. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS), c/o Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, Ahrstraße 45, Bonn, 53175, Germany

    Leonhard Hennen

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  1. Ralf Lindner
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  2. Georg Aichholzer
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Correspondence to Ralf Lindner .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Innovation Research (ISI), Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Ralf Lindner

  2. Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA), Vienna, Austria

    Georg Aichholzer

  3. ITAS, c/o Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, Karlsruher Institute of Technology (KIT), Bonn, Germany

    Leonhard Hennen

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Lindner, R., Aichholzer, G., Hennen, L. (2016). Electronic Democracy in Europe: An Introduction. In: Lindner, R., Aichholzer, G., Hennen, L. (eds) Electronic Democracy in Europe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27419-5_1

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