Digital Participation: The Case of the Italian “Dialogue with Citizens”

View Sample PDF

Author(s): Gianluca Sgueo (University of Coimbra, Portugal)
Copyright: 2014
Pages: 13
Source title: Human Rights and the Impact of ICT in the Public Sphere: Participation, Democracy, and Political Autonomy
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Christina M. Akrivopoulou (Hellenic Open University, Greece)and N. Garipidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-6248-3.ch001

Keywords: Business Science Reference / Ethics & Law / Public and Sector Management / Security & Forensics

Purchase

View Digital Participation: The Case of the Italian “Dialogue with Citizens” on the publisher's website for pricing and purchasing information.

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the initiative named “Dialogue with Citizens” that the Italian Government introduced in 2012. The Dialogue was an entirely Web-based experiment of participatory democracy aimed at, first, informing citizens through documents and in-depth analysis and, second, designed for answering their questions and requests. During the year-and-half life of the initiative, roughly 90,000 people wrote. Additionally, almost 200,000 participated in a number of public online consultations that the government launched in concomitance with the adoption of crucial decisions (i.e. the spending review national program). From the analysis of this experiment of participatory democracy three questions can be raised: (1) How can a public institution maximize the profits of participation and minimize its costs? (2) How can public administrations manage the (growing) expectations of the citizens once they become accustomed to participation? (3) Is online participatory democracy going to develop further, and why?

The IRMA Community

Research IRM

Digital Participation: The Case of the Italian “Dialogue with Citizens”

Purchase

Abstract

Related Content

IRMA Sponsors