Conference Background Paper

Dear Participants,

The attached document contains the questions from the Conference Background Paper. We ask over the course of the coming days that you please fill in your comments with regard to the questions posed in the space provided. We do hope that you will take the time to provide some of your thoughts in relation to the topics/questions of your choice. You may then submit this document to either the Information Desk or place it in one of the drop boxes in the Plenary Room prior to your departure. Over the weekend and during the following week, your comments will be noted and combined with the other comments received for inclusion into the final version of the Democracy Forum 2001 Policy Paper to be posted on the International IDEA website on Friday, July 6.

You may keep the other document for your reference.

Thank you for your thoughts and your time. We hope that your participation at the Democracy Forum 2001 will be pleasant and stimulating.

With very best regards,

Jimm Lerch
Democracy Forum Co-ordinator
International IDEA

Narrowing the Global Digital Divide

1. How can the developing and post-communist countries best move forward with the sort of initiatives and policies suggested by the Dot Force if substantial new commitments from the international community are not forthcoming?

2. How can the industrialized countries, the international business community, and multilateral organizations be encouraged to strengthen their commitment to digital development and to establish a higher level of coordination among their efforts?

3. What will be the consequences for democracy promotion if progress in narrowing global digital divide remains slow and highly uneven? What tactical adjustments will be necessary, for example by more effectively leveraging the traditional media technologies already in place?

Building Social Capital for Local Democracy

1. Which technologies, services and applications have proven to be more or less effective in building strong bonds within local communities and between civil society and local governments?

2. What steps can be taken in such efforts to engage in particular social segments that have been marginalized from participation in community life?

3. Should local governments and businesses pursue ICT partnerships with civil societal organizations engaged in buttressing democracy from the bottom up, and if so how?

Strengthening Political Parties

1. To what extent have differences among parties in their ability to utilize technology had a demonstrable effect on their relative strengths and on electoral outcomes?

2. What are the most effective ways to use ICTs to strengthen party organization, including the links between the national and local levels and with sister parties abroad?

3. How can political parties best use ICTs to publicize and build support for their policy positions and to get out the vote?

4. How can parties use the technology to engage the public in interactive dialogues and active participation in shaping their agendas?

Promoting a Vital Public Sphere in the New Media Environment

1. What sort of public policy frameworks are needed to facilitate diverse political expression in the "old" mass media, whether commercial or noncommercial in nature? Will the transition to digital radio and television require different approaches?

2. How can governments protect societies against allegedly harmful political expression or disinformation on the Internet without unduly curtailing speech or imposing their laws beyond their national borders?

3. How can we preserve some measure of shared civic culture in the infosphere and guard against the excessive fragmentation of political expression into narrow communities of interest?

4. How can governments ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to access and use ICTs for the purposes of political speech and participation irrespective of gender, ethnicity, income, education, locality, or other considerations?

Improving the Conduct of Elections

1. What commitments can governments reasonably be expected to undertake with respect to funding the procurement of appropriate voting technologies and ensuring their consistent deployment on a nation-wide basis?

2. How can electoral management bodies best ensure that voting technologies are customer friendly and configurable to meet the needs of citizens with disabilities, limited education, or little experience in using such technologies?

3. How can electoral management bodies make sure that computerized voter identification and registration records and vote counts are handled in a politically neutral, professional manner by both public bodies and any private sector entities involved?

4. What policy and security steps should governments take to maintain their national information infrastructures and electrical power grids at levels of readiness necessary for the reliable aggregation and dissemination of results?

5. Should remote electronic voting be promoted in order to encourage wider participation, and if so, how can governments ensure that such opportunities are not limited to particular social groups?

Fostering E-Democracy Through Governments and Parliaments

1. How can governments best use ICTs to make documents and legislative deliberations progressively more accessible to the general public?

2. As they develop the necessary resources and expertise, how can governments move beyond the one-way provision of services to creating interactive and participatory opportunities for citizen? In what cases would this be a useful objective, or not?

3. To avoid abuses and ensure that citizens will have full confidence in using e-government services, should governments adopt strong policies on privacy protection, digital signatures, freedom of information, and related issues?

4. Should the international community develop "readiness assessment" tools that can be used---on a demand-driven basis---to evaluate national e-government/e-democracy initiatives and to help identify and publicize best practices?

Encouraging Change in Authoritarian Regimes

1. Should the international community cooperate with civil society organizations and exile groups that are using ICTs to work for change in authoritarian countries?

2. Should the international community promote the global diffusion of ICTs, particularly encryption and other technologies that increase the privacy of electronic behavior?

3. Should ICT companies doing business with authoritarian regimes refrain from providing them with the technological means to track and suppress the electronic behavior of their citizens?

4. How can the international community raise the profile of information and communication rights on the global human rights agenda and in its interactions with authoritarian governments?

5. Should democracy assistance programs for countries transitioning from authoritarian rule give significant consideration to the potential benefits of ICTs, and should broader development assistance programs similarly support democracy-enhancing technology applications?