Technological support for e-democracy: history and perspectives

The interdependence of technology and society is unquestioned and has influenced research in technical sciences as well as social sciences for a long time. Technology to support citizen participation and e-democracy can potentially influence a whole political system. This paper discusses the role of technology with respect to citizen participation and e-democracy. Three core requirements for systems supporting citizen participation and e-democracy are specified and it is analysed how they are met by current systems. Community networks are introduced and their evolution is characterised as an example of sociotechnical evolution with respect to citizen participation and e-democracy