Policy Seminar - Private Area

Discussion Paper - initial thoughts for the Helsinki Seminar

Information and communication technology (ICT) has the potential to strengthen democracy around the world by providing a powerful new force to facilitate public participation, communication, and representation. On the other hand, it can reinforce the existing divides by increasing the gap between the "haves" and "have nots". Whether or not the potential of ICT will be used to deepen and promote democracy will depend on the policies and strategies formulated and implemented by national governments and the international community. Outlined below are some initial, broad policy recommendations to help ensure that the opportunities that the information revolution presents to enhance democracy are realized.

Overarching Policy Recommendations

1. The benefits of ICT must reach all the world's people: Despite the phenomenal growth of ICT in the industrialized world and its increasing penetration into developing countries, most of the world remains unconnected and does not benefit from the advantages of information technology. An overarching policy goal for governments and the international community must be to ensure that the benefits of information technology reach all the world's people.
   
   
2. Harness ICT's potential to enhance democracy: Information and communication technologies provide effective tools that can help enhance and deepen democratic values and practices. This potential must be realized and fully harnessed. It is essential for national governments and the international community to formulate and implement coherent strategies that take into account ICT's potential to promote democracy (some recommendations are suggested below).
   
   
3. Close the gender divide: Patterns of gender segregation are being reproduced in the information economy. For example, women are in the minority of Internet users in both developed and developing countries (e.g., only 38 per cent of Internet users in Latin America are women, in the European Union the figure is 25 per cent, in Russia 19 per cent, and in the Middle East 4 per cent). Democracy requires the active participation of all citizens. Every effort must be made to make sure that the digital gender gap does not grow and that women are not left behind.
   
   
4. Education: To ensure that people can reap the benefits of information technology, they must have access to quality education in general and to technology training in particular. An essential policy must be to invest in basic and higher education, as well as in technology training. In many developing countries access to education and technical training is restricted to a minority of the population. Policies must be in place to provided mass access to education and technical training to enable developing countries to take full advantage of the possibilities presented by the information revolution.
   
   
5. Affordable telecom infrastructure and increased bandwidth: To enable effective strategies in this area, essential prerequisites are the appropriate incentives to design and implement policies that enable affordable and efficient telecommunication infrastructure that enhances network service and development. Additionally, in order to handle the increased flow of information, ICT companies, countries, regions and international organizations must address the issue of how to increase bandwidth on a global level.
   
   
6. Technological innovation is but one additional tool. It must be emphasized that democratic transition and enhancement is a dynamic process with many social, cultural and political factors to be addressed. The use of ICTs to promote democracy is but one method and should not be pursued in place of the more traditional processes without adequate reflection upon the potential outcome.
   
   
7. The industrialized countries must support e-government initiatives. As the experience of countries in the industrialized world using ICTs accumulate, this wealth of information on best practices should be shared with international organizations and developing/transitional countries.
   
   Policies for Governments and Parliaments
   
   
8. E-government initiatives in both industrialized and developing countries are useful tools to deliver services, enhance citizen participation, and promote communication and information exchange. They should be encouraged and supported. In particular, industrialized countries should support e-government initiatives in developing and transitional countries.
   
   
9. E-government initiatives also enhance democracy, by promoting accessibility, transparency, and accountability. Efforts by governments and parliaments to further expand their communication and information exchange potential through the use of information technology should be encouraged and supported.
   
   The Dutch government initiative, for example, to establish a databank to include all basic democratic information, including legislation, regulations, directory of government departments, and to make this available to citizens free of charge, is a policy in the right direction to encourage accessibility and transparency.
   
   
10. The benefits of information technology to enhance democracy are perhaps most strongly felt at the local level. ICT, and the Internet in particular, provide an opportunity for improving local government services, and a new way for ordinary citizens to participate more directly in the decisions that affect their daily lives. Much progress has been made in the area of service delivery via the Internet. UKOnline, MAXI operated by Australia's Victoria state, and the eCitizen Centre in Singapore are a few examples of initiatives to connect citizens with local government. There are also a number of interesting initiatives to conduct polling and opinion research via the Internet at the local level. These initiatives should be encouraged and promoted.
    
    
11. The use of ICT should also be encouraged within government bureaucracies to facilitate nonhierarchical communication, consultation within departments, cooperation and trust. Its use as a research tool to keep parliamentarians better informed and connected should also be promoted.
    
    Political Expression
    
    
12. Information technology, and in particular the Internet, has the potential to revolutionize political activity far more profoundly than the telephone or television. Unlike these, it offers the possibility of two-way interaction between citizens and politicians. The interactive potential of the Internet must be utilized more fully to engage citizens and to provide a way for them to impact on policy-making. Political parties, parliaments and governments should use IT not only to relay information, but as a way to gather opinions and collect information in order to improve their operations and their efficiency. And policies should be established to ensure decision-makers due consideration of feedback and input received via the Internet. Civil society and community-based organizations should promote citizen's active participation through information technology.
    
    The German parliament initiative involving leading figures from the major parties to lead discussions on current issues, represents a step in the direction of strong democracy. An emphasis on using IT as a tool for dialogue, rather than just broadcast, will help further realize the democratic potential of information technology.
    
    
13. There should be a greater focus on ensuring that information technology is used to strengthen civic engagement, particularly for groups currently marginalized from mainstream politics. Greater efforts should be made to tap the potential of information technology to transform political participation and to encourage the participation of those not currently involved, rather than just reinforce current engagement patterns.
    
    
14. One of the most important functions of the Internet for democracy is that it offers the possibility for reintegrating into political life minorities that have been marginalized in politics because of the exorbitant costs of running a campaign. The Internet offers the possibility for individuals or organizations, who would not otherwise be able to participate, to make much more of an impact on voters and at much lower cost.
    
    
15. The encouragement and promotion of independent media outlets to provide an alternative voice over the Internet can expand the reach of political expression.
    
    Elections
    
    
16. Election technologies are moving at a much more rapid pace than election managers can handle. Managers must have available to them the means through which to review and procure the most appropriate technologies for their respective district(s).
    
    
17. When used appropriately, election technology and software can provide for voters with disabilities, geographical location, distance from the polling center, and educational level. However, the costs for these new technologies are high and require additional training costs that may discourage their purchase and use.
    
    
18. Election technology is relatively untested, compared with the traditional methods of voting and rely on additional assets outside the traditional voting mechanism, e.g., electricity, telephone lines, computer networks, hardware, software, etc.
    
    
19. Electronic voting and the use of election technologies are new tools, which if used proportionally and appropriately may assist the election process. The "direct democracy" debate should not influence the decision of those procuring the technologies, since the effectiveness of an election enhances the democratic structure, no matter what side of the debate one supports.
    
    Opening up Authoritarian States
    
    
20. A wide variety of democracy advocates and media outlets may have the opportunity to take advantage of ICT's to share information with the outside world via satellite, mobile technologies and the Internet. The authorities have the capabilities to close these outlets, but may lack the capacity if the movement is large.
    
    
21. As authoritarian states begin to embrace their own use of ICT's they may become more transparent in their activities and less removed from the global society. This view, however, is hopeful and as the authoritarian states have increased the usage of ICT's, they have recognized the threat they present to their power-base.
    
    
22. Citizens in asylum or diaspora the have been using the Internet to assemble and share their stories can be credited for raising the awareness of the global community with regard to the state of affairs in their native country.
    
    International Organizations
    
    
23. There are numerous initiatives being undertaken by international organizations on issues related to bridging the digital divide. However, often there is lack of coordination among such programmes. As stated in the proposals submitted by the World Economic Forum Task Force to the G-8 Summit, international organizations should enhance their coordination in this area to leverage scarce resources, learn from each other, and provide developing countries and other parties with well structured and usable information about the range of products under way and the lessons to be learned from experiences around the world. There is a need for inter-organizational coordination of the various conferences, specialized meetings and workshops on these issues; and a need for greater exchange of information on programmes and activities undertaken by different organizations. The emphasis should be on learning from each other on what policies and programmes are most effective and promoting efficiency.
    
    
24. Information technology provides the tools and mechanism to promote such communication and sharing of ideas. International organizations should use the tools provided by the Internet, such as listservs, e-mail, discussion forums, intranet, to facilitate communication, improve efficiency, reduce cost, and better coordinate their work within their organization, in the field, and with other organizations.
    
    
25. International organizations and multilateral donors should invest in programmes and projects that facilitate low cost and easy access to telecommunications in developing countries, particularly in rural areas. Such projects include establishing community centers that provide the general public with access to low-cost access to telecommunications, Internet and related technologies; and investment in wireless telecommunication systems that are cheaper to deploy than wireline systems.
    
    
26. The international community should develop more consultations and dialogue with those communities on the receiving end of these initiatives for the development of best practices.