The potentials that ICT offers to democracies
Future use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
New technologies are being invented all the time. How these new ICTs are going to be used in the future remains to be seen. It seems that ICTs are going to allow us to regularly vote on issues and we will even be able to vote in elections using the new technology.
Information and communication technologies significantly increase the amount and quality of communication and information that can flow through a society. New forms of interactive communication give people the ability to publish information and allow individual users much greater power over what they see or read.
Potentials for political parties
The new technologies have a number of major implications for political parties. Parties are able to use the technology to distribute much greater amounts of material to voters. Email, online forums, websites and chatrooms can be used to inform supporters, members and the broader public.
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The internet, in particular, offers smaller political parties a means to reach their supporters and publicise themselves. This gives smaller parties a chance to build up their organisation and membership.
MPs and technology
Members of parliament (MPs) and councillors have always used a variety of technologies to communicate with their constituents. This could range from 'walk-and-chats'; to the use of telephone and fax machines (and now email). Information and communication technologies can potentially transform this information gathering and socialisation activity from a one-to-one process to a one-to-many process. Members can use online discussion lists, voting mechanisms to gather views and opinions and the use of audio and video-conferencing systems to obtain information and talk to their constituents.
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Elections
Information and communication technologies have the potential to have a great influence on the democratic electoral process. Communication technologies can play a clear role in political campaigns. Voters can gather information on candidates, and candidates can communicate with voters and the campaign organisation itself. Information and communication technologies also have a potential role in creating new forms of political campaigning ('virtual campaigns';) to overcome traditional barriers for organising support.
Information and communication technologies also have the potential to be used for electronic and online voting. In many countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada and the Netherlands, the use of ICTs has already been trialled in the voting process. Computers can quickly deal with complex calculations such as counting preferences, and the entry of votes into a computer reduces the processing costs of manual keying. Any recounts and the display of totals can be undertaken very quickly. Technologies also have the potential to allow people to vote remotely which benefits people with limited mobility, or who are out of the area, State or country.
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Greater participation in the democracy process
The use of new communication technologies, particularly the internet, will potentially contribute to, or be responsible for, greater participation by citizens in the democracy process. More people can access information and more people can provide their point of view through forums, blogs, chatroom and website discussion pages. In fact, it is estimated over 50 million people currently produce an online journal. More recently, 'podcasts'; (online serialised audio content) and 'vlogs'; (online video diaries) have encouraged people to actively participate in using new technology. This has the potential to increase participation in democracies.
More choice and more information
New ICTs have the potential to offer people more choice. The internet can provide people with more information than ever before. It provides an alternative news and media service, rather than relying on global news services that are run by a few corporations. Citizens can find out more quickly and easily about political action and protests, and choose to become involved in virtual protests.
The potential use of ICTs in democracies is unlimited. The actual use of ICTs will depend on how much society values the new technologies and whether people and political parties will want to incorporate them into the democratic process.
