ELECTRONIC DEMOCRACY AS SOLUTION IN “NEW NORMAL” (PANDEMIC) CIRCUMSTANCES

Norberto Bobbio predicted a bright future for electronic democracy in the late 1980s.Pandemic circumstances have led us to think outside the box and about this thing.The whole world was made to reconsider the circumstances of living so far and find thenew ways of earning money, supplying of basic foodstuffs, keeping the process of educationfor kids in schools, and students in the universities etc. Finally, the right to vote and participatein decision-making came next.In this paper we will analyze some of the most commonly used electoral systems in theworld as well as ways of voting in decision-making processes, and find the ones that would bemost effective to translate into their electronic form. Pandemia might be over in few months,but we think that we should be prepaired for the next similar situation.On the other side, we must consider electronic ways of voting and decision making asprobably the most efficient way to make millennials- those born after 2000 who were born inera of internet, to go to the polls more, though those polls would be- electronic

Russian Federal Remote E-voting Scheme of 2021 -- Protocol Description and Analysis

This paper presents the details of one of the two cryptographic remote e-voting protocols used in the Russian parliamentary elections of 2021. As the official full version of the scheme has never been published by the election organisers, our paper aims at putting together as complete picture as possible from various incomplete sources. As all the currently available sources are in Russian, our presentation also aims at serving the international community by making the description available in English for further studies. In the second part of the paper, we provide an initial analysis of the protocol, identifying the potential weaknesses under the assumptions of corruption of the relevant key components. As a result, we conclude that the biggest problems of the system stem from weak voter authentication. In addition, as it was possible to vote from any device with a browser and Internet access, the attack surface was relatively large in general

Internet voting in Estonia 2005–2019: Evidence from eleven elections

Internet voting is a highly contested topic in electoral studies. This article examines Internet voting in Estonia over 15 years and 11 nation-wide elections. It focuses on the following questions: How is Internet voting organized and used in Estonia? How have the Estonian Internet voting system and its usage evolved over time? What are the preconditions and consequences of large-scale deployment of Internet voting? The results suggest that the rapid uptake and burgeoning usage rates reflect the system's embeddedness in a highly developed digital state and society. Through continuous technological and legal innovation and development, Estonia has built an advanced Internet voting system that complies with normative standards for democratic elections and is widely trusted and used by the voters. Internet voting has not boosted turnout in a setting where voting was already easily accessible. Neither has it created digital divides: Internet voting in Estonia has diffused to the extent that socio-demographic characteristics no longer predict usage. This, combined with massive uptake, reduces incentives for political parties to politicize the novel voting mode

Icarus, or the idea toward efficient, economical, and ethical acquirement of critical governmental information systems

Critical governmental information systems are governmental information systems used by the administration to retain information and provide services that enable and safeguard the lives, well-being and security of citizens. These include public healthcare information systems, electronic voting systems, and border control information systems with biometric registers. As the ongoing digitalisation of our society advances, our dependence on information systems, their functionality and security continues to grow and the quality of work done with them increasingly intertwines with the daily lives of citizens. However, it has long been evident that IT projects in public administration are failing. Governmental information system projects often end up being astronomically expensive, unreasonably ineffective and ethically unsustainable. Therefore, much more attention should be paid to the procurement process for these systems. The reasons for these problems are manifold. Often, simple political motivations and appeal to, among other things, national pride, are a simple way for politicians to attain support. The creation of large-scale system entities favours large-scale private-sector actors specialised on governmental information systems. These companies’ impact on society’s decision-making and operations should not be underrated. However, the lack of understanding of technology and socio-technical problems and the structure of the digitalisation in society are likely to be the biggest problems in procuring these systems. It must be understood that organisational behaviour changes when its information systems are changed - including the ethical basis. To develop efficient, economical and ethical governmental information systems, a holistic approach is required. The ability to make decisions that take into account the needs and requirements of the citizens, employees, system vendors, and society at large in an ethically sustainable way is required. It should be noted that the decision makers, payers, suppliers, and the targets of the use are often different parties with their own desires, goals, and objectives. It is necessary to understand the functioning of the technology and its potential, but also to address the limitations of technology and potential threats created by it. The security required for these systems should not be diminished. This dissertation is framed in the light of Ovid’s telling of the myth of Daedalus and Icarus and through the framework for Aristotle's virtue ethics to examine the responsibility of governmental information system procurement, the role of responsible actors in society, and their required capabilities. The dissertation demonstrates that the current approach in many situations, the Icarian method, whereby persons committed their lives to the virtue of scientific knowledge are dismissed on discussion and decision-making in a way that is economically, effectively and ethically unsustainable. The antithesis for this, the Daedalus effect, represents a desirable state where decision-making is guided by caution, as well as by scientific and ethical inspiration. The dissertation proposes that critical governmental information systems should be guided by a prominent actor cultivated to the virtue of holistic scientific wisdom.Julkishallinnon kriittiset tietojärjestelmät ovat tietojärjestelmiä, joita hallinto käyttää säilyttämään tietoa sekä tuottamaan kansalaisten henkeä, hyvinvointia ja turvallisuutta mahdollistavia palveluita. Näihin järjestelmiin lukeutuvat muun muassa julkisen terveydenhuollon tietojärjestelmät, sähköiset äänestysjärjestelmät sekä rajavalvonnan tietojärjestelmät biometrisine tunnisterekistereineen. Yhteiskunnan digitalisoituessa riippuvuutemme tietojärjestelmistä sekä niiden toimivuudesta ja turvallisuudesta jatkaa kasvamistaan ja näiden järjestelmien avulla suoritetun työn laatu on yhä tiukemmassa vuorovaikutussuhteessa kansalaisten jokapäiväiseen elämään. On kuitenkin ollut ilmiselvää jo pitkään, että julkishallinnon IT-hankkeet epäonnistuvat taajaan. Julkishallinnon tietojärjestelmähankkeet ovat usein tähtitieteellisen kalliita, kohtuuttoman tehottomia ja eettisesti kestämättömiä. Siksi näiden järjestelmien hankintaprosessiin olisi syytä kiinnittää nykyistä selvästi enemmän huomiota. Syyt näihin ongelmiin ovat moninaiset. Usein jo yksinkertaiset poliittiset motivaatiot sekä vetoaminen muun muassa kansalliseen ylpeyteen ovat poliitikolle yksinkertainen keino saavuttaa kannatusta. Suurikokoisten järjestelmäkokonaisuuksien tekeminen suosii julkishallinnon järjestelmähankintoihin keskittyneitä suuryrityksiä, joiden vaikutusta yhteiskunnalliseen päätöksentekoon ja toimintaan ei sovi väheksyä. Kuitenkin ymmärtämättömyys teknologiasta ja sosio-teknisistä ongelmista sekä digitalisoituvan yhteiskunnan rakenteista lienee suurimpia ongelmia järjestelmien hankinnassa. On otettava huomioon, että yhteisön toiminta muuttuu, kun sen tietojärjestelmiä muutetaan – myös eettisen toiminnan osalta. Luodaksemme tehokkaita, taloudellisia ja eettisesti kestäviä tietojärjestelmiä julkishallinnon käyttöön on asiaa lähestyttävä kokonaisvaltaisesti. On osattava tehdä päätöksiä, joissa otetaan huomioon kansalaisten, työntekijöiden, järjestelmien toimittajien sekä yhteiskunnan tarpeet ja vaatimukset eettisesti kestävällä tavalla. On huomattava, että päättäjä, maksaja, toimittaja ja käytön kohde ovat kovin usein eri tahoja omine toiveineen, tavoitteineen ja päämäärineen. On ymmärrettävä teknologian toiminta ja sen luomat mahdollisuudet mutta myös käsitettävä teknologian rajoitukset ja sen luomat uhat. Myöskään tietoturvan tarvetta näiden järjestelmien kohdalla ei sovi vähätellä. Väitöskirjassa käsitellään Ovidiuksen kertoman Daedaluksen ja Ikaroksen myytin kautta Aristoteelisen hyve-etiikan viitekehyksessä julkishallinnon tietojärjestelmätilausten vastuuta sekä vastuuhenkilöitä, vastuuhenkilöiden asemaa yhteiskunnassa ja heiltä vaadittavia kykyjä. Väitöskirjassa osoitetaan, että monessa tilanteessa esiintyvä julkishallinnon toimintatapa, Ikaroslainen metodi, jossa tiedon hyveillä varustautuneet henkilöt sivutetaan keskustelusta ja päätöksenteosta on niin taloudellisesti, tehokkuudellisesti kuin eettisestikin kestämätön toimintatapa. Tämän vastavoima, Daedalus-efekti, taas edustaa tavoitetilaa, jossa päätöksentekoa ohjaavat varovaisuus sekä tieteen ja moraalifilosofian inspiroima toiminta. Väitöskirjassa esitetään, että julkishallinnon tietojärjestelmätoimintaa pitäisi ohjata laaja-alaisen tieteellisen viisauden hyveen kultivoinut näkyvä toimija

The Practice of Change

PhD dissertation submitted to Keio University Graduate School of Media & GovernanceOver the last century civilization has systematically supported a market based approach to developing technical, financial, social and legal tools that focus on efficiency, growth and productivity. In this manner we have achieved considerable progress on some of the most pressing humanitarian challenges, such as eradicating infectious diseases and making life easier and more convenient. However, we have often put our tools and methods to use with little regard to their systemic or long-term effects, and have thereby created a set of new, interconnected, and more complex problems. Our new problems require new approaches: new understanding, solution design and intervention. Yet we continue to try to solve these new problems with the same tools that caused them. Therefore in my dissertation I ask: How can we understand and effectively intervene in interconnected complex adaptive systems? In particular, my thesis presents through theory and practice the following contributions to addressing these problems: 1. A post-Internet framework for understanding and intervening in complex adaptive systems. Drawing on systems dynamics, evolutionary dynamics and theory of change based on causal networks, I describe a way to understand and suggest ways to intervene in complex systems. I argue that an anti-disciplinary approach and paradigm shifts are required to achieve the outcomes we desire. 2. Learnings from the creation and management of post-Internet organizations that can be applied to designing and deploying interventions. I propose an architecture of layers of interoperability to unbundle complex, inflexible, and monolithic systems and increase competition, cooperation, generativity, and flexibility. I argue that the Internet is the best example of this architecture and that the Internet has provided an opportunity to deploy this architecture in other domains. I demonstrate how the Internet has has made the world more complex but through lowering the cost of communication and collaboration has enabled new forms of organization and production. This has changed the nature of our interventions. 3. How and why we must change the values of society from one based on the measurement of financial value to flourishing and robustness. The paradigm determines what we measure and generates the values and the goals of a system. Measuring value financially has created a competitive market-based system that has provided many societal benefits but has produced complex problems not solvable through competitive market-based solutions. In order to address these challenges, we must shift the paradigm across our systems to focus on a more complex measure of flourishing and robustness. In order to transcend our current economic paradigm, the transformation will require a movement that includes arts and culture to transform strongly held beliefs. I propose a framework of values based on the pursuit of flourishing and a method for transforming ourselves. Reflecting on my work experience, I examine my successes and failures in the form of learnings and insights. I discuss what questions are outstanding and conclude with a call to action with a theory of change; we need to bring about a fundamental normative shift in society through communities, away from the pursuit of growth for growth’s sake and towards a sustainable sensibility of flourishing that can draw on both the historical examples and the sensibilities of some modern indigenous cultures, as well as new values emerging from theoretical and practical progress in science