e-Democracy

We  promote balanced  development of  e-government  where along with e-administration and e-services also  e-democracy  has  due attention. The aim of our e-democracy program is to provide assistance in order to achive more transparent,  accountable and participatory governance.  We consider Estonia as a test case since the country has enthusiastically applied ICT for better citizen engagement in policymaking alredy for several years. The first public participation portal TOM   (Today I Decide)  was launched in 2001. Furthermore, Internet voting is a supplementary channel to cast one’s vote in local and national elections already since 2005.

In recent years e-Governance Academy (eGA) has initiated several projects  to spread the knowledge and use of new technology  for better democracy.  Among those are:

• e-Participation in local goverments
• Use of social media in the Parliament of Estonia
• e-Citizens advocacy
• The analysis of online election campaigns
• Elector’scompass for the Riigikogu (parliamentary) elections 2011

In Summer 2010 eGA  won the public tender „Use of ICT to enhance public participation in decision making (e-Democracy)“ . The  2-year long project is related to the Information Society Action Plan of the Estonian Government where  public participation in decision-making using ICT is  an important goal.  The project includes the following action lines:

 - analysing e-democracy in Estonian central and local governments with recommendations for the future policy development;

 - analysing online political campaigns during Riigikogu (parliamentary) elections 2011;

 - awareness rising about e-participation among public sector officials and civil society including Russian speaking community;

 - issuing the e-democracy newsletter summing up the important e-democracy activities in Estonia and internationally;

 - introducing Estonian experiences on e-democracy development internationally.

 e-Governance Academy has  already successfully  carried out all activities foreseen by the timetable of the project.

Additional information: Liia Hänni, e-Democracy Program Director liia.hanni@ega.ee