The Internet, Political Participation and Election Turnout: A Case Study of Germany's www.abgeordnetenwatch.de

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 156-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hartwig Pautz
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
East Germany ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Decision Making

Germany's parliamentary democracy appears to be in crisis. The major parties' membership is in decline and barely existing in East Germany, election turnout is decreasing at all levels, and the reputation of politicians has never been worse. At the same time, however, Germans are more interested in politics than in the 1990s, overwhelmingly support democracy, and are keen on participating particularly in local political decision making. Out of this situation emerged www.abgeordnetenwatch.de— a website that aims to re-establish the link between electors and elected by allowing voters and representatives to communicate via a publicly accessible question-andanswer structure. This article addresses the questions of whether such an instrument can revitalize representative democracy and whether it has done so in the context of the 2009 federal elections.

scholarly journals The British Academy Brian Barry Prize Essay: Representing the Future: The Interests of Future Persons in Representative Democracy

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre Santos Campos
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Distant Future ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Prize Essay

Abstract As a reaction against contemporary democracy's inherent short-sightedness in solving problems that are likely to affect distant future generations, there has been a recent increase in proposals for different kinds of democratic representation of future persons. This article shows that even though there can be no such thing as political representation of future persons, the relevant affected interests of the as-yet unborn can still be taken into consideration in political decision making. This aim is achieved by focusing on the political representation of children as special cases of semi-future members of the class of the represented.

scholarly journals Smart City: the arrival of a New Democracy or Digital Totalitarianism?

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-22
Author(s):  
Sergey Fedorchenko ◽  
E. Karlyavina
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Digital Democracy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Comprehensive Programs ◽  
New Democracy ◽  
Political Decision Making

The main purpose of the article is to study technologies of a smart city to identify the prospects for digital democracy and risks of digital totalitarianism. The basic methodological optics is the discourse analysis, which involves the identification and comparative analysis of various concepts on the selected issues. The supporting methodology was the Case Study principles and the big data analysis capabilities of the Google Trends platform. The article makes a theoretical contribution to the understanding of the algorithmic nature of modern political power, which is the basis of urban technopolitics, as well as the complex configuration of Policy and Politics. Algorithms, as the fundamental basis of digital applications and smart city technologies, are beginning to permeate the entire life of a citizen, closely intertwining with the mechanisms of digital control, rating, political decision-making, extraction, filtering and sorting of information data. It is particularly emphasized that the traditional social reality is transformed into a sociotechnical reality (the phygital world), in which it is no longer possible to rigidly separate the social from the technical. The conclusions indicate that digital democracy is possible only on the principles of open source, while digital totalitarianism, on the contrary, excludes such a model. Without the inclusion of smart citizens, the process of discussion and political decision-making, digital democracy is simply emasculated into a good, but still narrow service on the part of the authorities. In addition, without comprehensive programs in the field of political education, there will be no digital democracy, no smart citizens, only a smart elite will remain.

Het strijdpunt als besluitvormingstype in de Belgische politiek

Res Publica ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 527-550
Author(s):  
Wilfried Dewachter
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Single Issue ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
Direct Election ◽  
Political Decision Making

Within the Belgian political system political issues are hard to deal with. The institutions do not provide a problem-solving mechanism : no ref erendum, no direct election of a one-party cabinet. Moreover, electoral campaigns usually involve a lot of heterogeneous issues and almost never focus upon a single one. Active political participation of citizens is, by definition, selective and, compared with electoral participation, limited, although, the number of people taking part in a political demonstration is sometimes considerable. An investigation of the Belgian political elite shows that active political participation, sparked off by a single issue, can be considered as one of the most polyarchie types of political decision-making in Belgium. This involves an increase of tension and conflict, a slowing down of the process of decision-making and a selective accessibility to this type of participation. Belgian politicians try to avoid these difficulties by either opting for non-decision or consociational politics.

scholarly journals Expectation Violation in Political Decision Making: A Psychological Case Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Öllinger ◽  
Karin Meissner ◽  
Albrecht von Müller ◽  
Carlos Collado Seidel
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Decision Making

scholarly journals Linking Democratic Preferences and Political Participation: Evidence from Germany

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 24-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergiu Gherghina ◽  
Brigitte Geissel
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
Extensive Body

An extensive body of literature discusses the disaffection of citizens with representative democracy and highlights increasing citizens’ preferences for political decision-makers beyond elected politicians. But so far, little research has been conducted to analyse the relations between citizens’ respective preferences and their political behaviour. To address this void in the literature, our article investigates the extent to which citizens’ preferences for certain political decision-makers (politicians, citizens or expert) have an impact on their retrospective and prospective political participation. Our analysis draws on data from a survey conducted in autumn of 2014 on a probability representative sample in Germany. Results indicate that respondents favouring politicians as decision-makers focus mainly on voting. Those who favour citizens as decision-makers are more willing to get involved in participatory procedures, while those inclined towards expert decision-making show mixed participation.

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