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Volume 5 Issue 2 Special Issue: ECEG 2007 Den Haag
e-Democracy in Australia: the Challenge of Evolving a Successful Model
Jenny Backhouse
School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, UNSW@ADFA, Canberra, Australia |
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Can the use of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) enhance democracy and democratic participation? Over the last several years, researchers and practitioners in different countries have experimented with a variety of initiatives to answer this question, generally with mixed success.
This paper examines the current status of e-democracy initiatives in Australia and considers the factors that might contribute to the evolution of a successful model of e-democracy in the Australian context. In particular, it examines whether any analogies can be drawn from the world of e-business, a world which has transitioned from an over-hyped boom and then bust in the early years into a steadier and sustained growth in more recent times.
E-business researchers have identified several of the key factors that influence e-business success. These include the environment (eg communications infrastructure) in which the business operates; the likelihood of competing access channels (eg bricks and mortar store); the disruptive nature of the Internet itself and the disintermediation that has occurred; the resources needed to support a viable e-business. The article discusses these factors and the likelihood of their relevance in the area of e-democracy.
The article highlights the nature of democracy and its implementation in various countries. E-democracy models need to align with the stages of decision-making present in different models of democratic government. Additionally, as several researchers have pointed out, e-democracy models need to take account of the multi-dimensionality of e-democracy.
This paper then reviews the current context in Australia and concludes that, despite some valiant efforts by e-democracy enthusiasts, we have yet to hit on an e-democracy model that truly engages the Australian populace. Nevertheless, the analogy from e-business suggests that, given the right model(s) and the right environment, it can still be possible to deliver real benefits via e-democracy.
Keywords: e-democracy, e-business, model, Australia.
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