Mary Reid

This morning I was invited to speak to a research seminar at the Institute for Public Policy Research. They are exploring the impact of local media on citizenship, and this particular session was looking at digital media. I was one of five speakers, all approaching the topic from very different perspectives.

I returned to the theme I was exploring last week - a comparison of Kingston's e-petitions and those at 10 Downing Street. I explained about how in Kingston we encourage participation at meetings and working groups, especially at Neighbourhood level, so e-petitions fit neatly into processes that are already interactive.

I claimed that the value of e-democracy tools, such as e-petitions, online forums, consultations, blogs etc, depends on the participatory framework within which they operate. If they are introduced into a traditional representative democracy, where there is little citizen participation, then they can have one of three effects.  If we are lucky e-democracy tools can ease the transition into participatory representative democracy (where elected representatives encourage participation, but ensure that all voices are heard), but alternatively they can initiate the slide towards direct democracy (where citizens by-pass elected representatives and use methods such as referenda to make decisions), or they can bounce up against the problems (as at No 10) and start a real debate about how to support and respond to participation.