E-democracy and the World Wide Web no comments
E-democracy (electronic democracy or digital democracy) is a relatively new concept. It can be defined as the usage of information and communication technologies (ICT) for the enhancement of the participation of citizens in the democratic process. However, it can be argued that these technologies and especially the World Wide Web can play a bigger role in that process, by providing opportunities for reshaping the way democratic institutions currently work.
In order to evaluate the above statement, a thorough study of the way Democracy works is needed. Furthermore, prevalent ideologies within democratic states are factors that affect the degree of adoption of e-democracy, so studying Political Science textbooks is a way to be introduced to the most important ones.
The study of issues like collective action, discourse and decision making is crucial for gaining an understanding of the democratic process on both an offline context and the Web. For this reason, knowledge of Sociology and its basic principles is needed.
Some books to be used as an introduction to the aforementioned disciplines are:
Political Science:
- Political Ideologies: an introduction – Eccleshal et al
- Political Sociology: a critical introduction – Faulks
Sociology:
- Sociology – Giddens
- Sociology: A Global Introduction – Macionis, Plummer
Some other books that may be useful are:
- The Myth of Digital Democracy – Hindman
- Sociology in the Age of the Internet (Sociology and Social Change) – Cavanagh
- The Social Net: Human behavior in cyberspace – Amichai-Hamburger