STOA-News

Report of the STOA Workshop

“Can Political Communication via Internet and E-participation Contribute to the Emergence of a European Public Sphere?”

Brussels, Belgium, May 26, 2011

The workshop, held at the European Parliament in Brussels as part of a STOA project on e-democracy and following an earlier workshop on e-voting (“Can e-voting increase electoral participation?”; see STOA , March 2011), reflected on the potentials and realistic prospects of Internet-based applications to contribute to the democratic practices of the evolving political system of the European Union and the formation of a European public sphere. There are examples of cases where positive effects of the Internet concerning the political process are visible – including a variety of top-down as well as bottom-up driven e-participation initiatives. However, it becomes clear as well that the potential of the new technologies has not been fully realised so far and that there are different technical, legal, political, and social issues which need to be addressed in the future.

The Internet can help generate a European public, although the issues discussed in the Internet show a strong specialisation. This specialisation goes hand in hand with a fragmented rather than a uniform and broadly informed audience. Nonetheless, this fragmented audience is a transnational one. It can be said that the issue-related publics emerging on the Internet in many respects can be regarded as elements of a European public opinion. An open question is how the specialised public opinions can be linked and how they can be reconnected to the official political processes within the European institutions.

In the workshop, five distinguished researchers in the field of e-democracy gave their assessments on e-public and e-participation. Each of them focused on different aspects: Stijn Smismans from Cardiff University concentrated on the interrelations between e-democracy and the public sphere. He pointed out that e-participation is closely linked with a broader definition of citizenship and the idea of an active democracy. Georgios Papanagnou gave an overview of the role of ICTs and general obstacles for a genuinely European public sphere. A further assessment was given by Sandra González-Bailón from the University of Oxford; she pointed out the necessity to conduct more research in the field of citizens’ online engagement. Jeremy Millard from the Danish Technological Institute underpinned the importance of the linkage between bottom-up and top-down initiatives as a future aspect for integrating e-participation into political processes. Andy Williamson from the Hansard Society mentioned changes in the way citizens participate that are in line with the evolution of the Internet. He sees a necessity for institutions to embrace these chances and build up a public sphere.

The lively discussions revealed that the way e-participation can practically take place on the European level still has to be defined and that questions regarding digital divide, language skills, political literacy, and representativeness are not yet answered. Current challenges are the proceduralization of online engagement and that institutions accept and support electronic modes of participation.

(Bernd Beckert, ISI)