AMPLIFYING DEMOCRACY THROUGH E-PLATFORMS

BY:
DEMAFILES, CRISHA MARIE
BIACO HANNAH GRACE
ROA, MA. CASSANDRA
BELICARIA, DANIELLA
SOLAR, JG
BAYLOSIS, KIM
PERDRAJAS, KYLA
VILLAR, MARYROSE
NAPULI, TRACE
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The adoption of open data and social networking for user interactions with government that leads
to participatory governance are the emerging research trends, e-governing practices has
revolutionized the administrative machinery of governments worldwide by improving efficiency,
transparency, and accountability. The revolutionary growth of e-governance in the recent past has
resulted in efficiency, accountability, and transparency, and enhanced citizen engagement in the
governments' strategic decision-making processes. Almost all countries have at least some form
of online service for their citizens (Nations, 2014). The number of countries scoring high on the
E-governance Development Index (EGDI) increased from 10 in 2003 to 29 in 2016 (Peña-López
et al., 2016).

According to the United Nations, the main objective of an e-government is to deliver

government information and services to citizens by utilizing the Internet and the world-wide-web
(Nations, 2005). Furthermore, the term E-governance has a wider meaning concerning the use of
information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enhance the governance process and
support e-Democracy, e-Government, and e-Business (Bannister & Connolly, 2011; Holmes,
2001; Okot-Uma & London, 2000). This is also application of electronic means for the
interaction between government and citizens and government and businesses, as well as in
internal government operations to simplify and improve democratic, government and business
aspects of Governance (Backus, 2001).

Lastly, According to the definition by Marche and McNiven (2003), e-governance is a

technology-mediated relationship between citizens and their governments from the perspective
of potential electronic deliberation over civic communication, over policy evolution and in
democratic expressions of citizen will. However, there are several dis -advantages that affects
the implementation of e-governance.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
1. How will E-Government enables more efficient management processes?
2. How will E-Participation Strengthens the Political Debate?
3. Does e-voting Increases Participation?

RELATED REVIEW LITERATURE

Electronic government, also known as e-government, refers to the use of digital technologies,
such as the internet and mobile devices, to deliver government services and information to
citizens. The ultimate goal of e-government is to provide an increased portfolio of public services
to citizens in an efficient and cost-effective manner while promoting transparency, accessibility,
and accountability. While there are many potential advantages to e-government, there are also
several disadvantages that must be considered. (e-spincorp-e-government, et al.) In
eGovernment, the government uses information technology and particularly the Internet to
support government operations, engage citizens and provide government services (Jain &
Sharma, 2003). The interaction may be in the form of obtaining information, filings, or making
payments and a host of other activities via the World Wide Web. (Sharma & Gupta, 2003,
Sharma, 2004, Sharma, 2006).
Moreover, according to the Policy Review, digital democracy is a term filled with political
aspirations. From an historical perspective, it is the latest model succeeding electronic
democracy or teledemocracy, each of which emphasize the idea of democratization through
technology. Importantly, this idea has manifested itself not only in texts and discussions, but also
in experimental projects. Thereafter, they added that digital democracy investigates how the use
of digital technologies may influence the conditions, institutions and practices of political
engagement and democratic governance. Also, This definition demonstrates how e-Government
uses ICTs as a support tool in the development of good governance.
(portal.oas.org/portal/sector. et al.).
SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM
The main goal of online democracy is the strengthened integration of citizens in the political
debate. Internet connectivity enables more people to participate in many discussions that may
have been previously localized or too high-brow. The digitalization of participation is aimed at
increasing the transparency and legitimacy of our political systems through democratic
engagement. Hence, The aim of E-Government is both the efficient running of government and
the promotion transparency. This is achieved by the digitalization of services and processes and
the increased use and publication of government data. Where more data is available to the public
and other government departments, there is more accountability. This can range from filling out
taxes online, registering to vote to the publication of national trade statistics and department
budgets. The idea is, as more services are digitalized, the demand for a digitalized government
grows. This should lead to a faster and more efficient governance. (Charles Harding, 2017)
Moreover, E-Participation aims to enable a more advanced political debate through
digitalization. The main methods are sites where citizens can address and solve issues but also,
forums or sites where citizens can raise concerns with the government directly. The best example
of the latter is the Petitions website in the United Kingdom. Here any citizen may create or
support a petition. Any petition that gets above a certain number of signatures must be responded
by the UK parliament. Politicians and civil servants are, in this way, able to track and tackle the
most important topics – stoking the flames of political engagement. (CDU party Conference).
Lastly, According to Polyas Board Election case studies Digital participation is unlikely to lead
anywhere without the ability to easily vote on topics. For citizens to be more active in
participating in government, there needs to be the ability to engage directly and more frequently.
Online voting is the only realistic method with which citizens could consistently and easily
participate. Online voting for companies, unions, cooperatives and professional associations have
consistently received higher voter turnout for their respective elections they offered the Postal
voting that provides the best comparison for online elections, but online is safer, more efficient,
much faster and far better for the environment.
CONCLUSION
E-governance is an important initiative taken by governments worldwide to handle and carry out
their duties. It aims to provide services so that everyone can benefit from them.
Thus, E-Governance is a critical initiative taken by governments worldwide to enhance service
delivery, transparency, and efficiency. While it aims to provide benefits to citizens and streamline
administrative processes, the success rate of e-governance projects remains varied.
Approximately 15% of projects are fully successful, 35% are complete failures, and 50% fall into
the category of partial failures.(unapcict.org) To improve these outcomes, continuous evaluation,
adaptability, and user-centric design are essential for successful e-governance implementation.
Furthermore, As what Daniel Kreiss says, many contemporary e-democracy projects have at their
heart a model of atomistic, independent, rational, and general-interest citizens. As such, these
projects, variously grouped under the labels of e-governance, online deliberation, open
government, and civic technology, often assume a broad shared consensus about collective
definitions of “public problems” that both does not exist and sidesteps debates over what these
problems are and what potential solutions can and should be. E-democracy efforts need to
account for the fact that the citizens practitioners appeal to see themselves by default as members
of social groups, and that this has implications for politics and what Jasanoff calls “civic
epistemology.” I argue that e-democracy initiatives should seek to foster collaboration and
deliberation within, not between, parties and among partisans. To do so, e-democratic reformers
need to explicitly structure the collaborative and deliberative environment so there is a range of
intra-party opinions and beliefs as part of the consultative and policy-making process.
Furthermore, Good governance is the essence of success for every public and private
organization. The traditional governance system is delayed and costly. With the robust
development of information technology, an adaptation of e-governance is common across the
country to reduce the drawbacks of the traditional governance system. But the complaints from
the public related to the discharge of public service have not been reduced. The claims of the
general public lie on poor economic governance in the implementation of e-governance. Thus,
the problem should be examine to the role of economic governance on e-governance practices.