Technology and democracy: the who and how in decision-making. The cases of Estonia and Catalonia

Borge, Rosa; Brugué, Joaquim; Duenas-Cid, David

Technology and democracy: the who and how in decision-making. The cases of Estonia and Catalonia

dc.contributor.author	Borge, Rosa
dc.contributor.author	Brugué, Joaquim
dc.contributor.author	Duenas-Cid, David
dc.date.accessioned	2022-06-16T07:35:46Z
dc.date.available	2022-06-16T07:35:46Z
dc.date.issued	2022
dc.description.abstract	This paper focusses on the use of technology to improve democracy, comparing the cases of Estonia and Catalonia. Both examples are closely related in their use of technology to further democratize the decision-making processes, but have opposite starting points. Estonia’s internet voting system is an offshoot of the comprehensive e-governance system developed by the Estonian government. It is meant to make it more convenient for people to vote and, thus, easier for them to take part in elections. In Catalonia, the online participation system Decidim, initially set up in the city of Barcelona, represents a bottom-up project that emerged from the 15 May protests and aims to make the representa-tive democratic system more direct and participatory. In our comparison we approach both paradigmatic cases from a theoretical reflection on the ideal types of democracy in relation to how decisions are made and by whom. Both projects have evolved and integrated new features that draw them together. First, internet voting is able to reach wider portions of society and digitally transform the Public Administration. Second, online participation platforms increase the potential for collecting citizens’ proposals and enriching discussions. These features make them more like a mixed model which, in the current model of representative democracy, creates spaces for a more direct and deliberative democracy.	et
dc.identifier.uri	https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2022.may.11
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10062/82617
dc.language.iso	eng	et
dc.relation	info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/857622///ECePS	et
dc.relation.ispartofseries	Profesional de la información, v. 31, n. 3;
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess	et
dc.rights	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International	*
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/	*
dc.subject	Decidim	et
dc.subject	Deliberative democracy	et
dc.subject	Direct democracy	et
dc.subject	Aggregative democracy	et
dc.subject	Representative democracy	et
dc.subject	Digital platforms	et
dc.subject	Online participation	et
dc.subject	Internet voting	et
dc.subject	deliberatiivne demokraatia	et
dc.subject	interneti valimine	et
dc.subject	online osalus	et
dc.subject	digitaalsed platvormid	et
dc.subject	esindusdemokraatia	et
dc.subject	otsedemokraatia	et
dc.title	Technology and democracy: the who and how in decision-making. The cases of Estonia and Catalonia	et
dc.type	info:eu-repo/semantics/article	et