UK Online: Forcing Citizen Involvement into a Technically-Oriented Framework?

摘要

We conclude by arguing the case for a much more limited but more realistic version of UK online which rather than seeking to structure and control the whole nature of government-citizen interaction, instead facilitates the more democratic possibilities that e-government can allow. We are endorsing a normative ideal of democracy as political communication and suggesting a model of democratic process where citizens must engage with one another and with government in a public space where they make proposals and criticise one another in an effort to persuade all parties of the best solutions to collective problems. This is active democracy where citizens are involved as much as is practical in making these fundamental decisions about how to live together as well as with simply transacting for services. Here it is important that the processes should be fair, open and, most of all, inclusive. This involves facilitating models of government and citizenship beyond those of service supplier and consumer to engineer both in technical terms and in a democratic sense a better approach to online government.