186 research outputs found
De vrouwenbeweging online
This is an in-depth study of 12 organizations: six
grass-roots organizations, three umbrella organizations and
three service organizations within the Dutch women's
movement. Also, six 'virtual organizations' (three portal
sites, a platform site and two web organizations) were
investigated. Apart from the service organizations, the uses
of the Internet are almost limited to three communicative
functions: information dissemi-nation and retrieval,
recruitment and communication between the leaderships of
organizations. Most organizations are leaving the 'homepage
phase' of site development, but their current new ambitions
seem to be more directed at applying network technology for
purposes of internal communication than at interaction with
the organization's environment. Until now, Internet uses had
indeed some effects on the mobilization of resources, the
relations with the environment and the 'management of
frames', but these effects are almost limited to greater
effectiveness and efficiency of existing action patterns.
All organizations are now facing a situation in which the
internal communication has to proceed along two speeds: only
a part of the membership (individual members or member
organizations) is online. The virtual organizations are more
representative for the innovative potential of Internet.
Together, they shape the contours of an information- and
communication infrastructure for the women's movement in the
information age
Re-intermediating the councillors? Towards new connections between representative and participatory democracy in local government
Session 2: Political representation and legitimacyThis paper explores the consequences of two strands of institutional renewal in local government for the position of the councillors, namely (1) the introduction of forms of participatory democracy in combination with (2) certain reforms in the institutions of representative democracy, in particular the separation of administrative and scrutiny roles between the council and the executive, and the directly elected mayor. In two cities, Almere in the Netherlands and Lewisham in the United Kingdom, various examples of citizen involvement are examined. A strikingly different picture emerges. Whereas a clear trend towards a disintermediation of the councillors can be observed in Lewisham, the Almere Council is trying strategies that seem to further a re-intermediation of the council in the political linkage chain. Together, these cases indicate that the character of the intermediation between citizens and decision-makers in local governance is determined by the interplay between institutional conditions and actor strategies
Facilitating the monitorial voter
Websites for monitoring the past performance of elected representatives in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands are analysed according to how they meet the voters’ information needs. The case study reveals two distinct models of information provision. One model supports the evaluation of the enactment of election programmes by political parties, the other model supports the monitoring of the performance of individual representatives in terms of the voters’ current preferences. Guidelines are suggested for the design of retrospective voter information websites
Interactieve beleidsvorming en de instituties van het lokale bestuur
Interactieve beleidsvorming kan institutioneel worden opgevat als (1)
een nieuwe aanpak van collectieve besluitvorming en (2) als een set van
nieuwe rollen voor lokale actoren, zoals politici en ambtenaren. In dit
artikel wordt nagegaan hoe nieuwe instituties van interactieve
beleidsvorming en bestaande instituties van niet-interactieve
beleidsvorming elkaar beinvloeden. Kort na het afsluiten van de vijf
onderzochte interactieve processen (in de gemeenten De Bilt, Enschede,
Leerdam, Hellevoetsluis en Zeewolde) bleek het (nog?) niet mogelijk om
enige doorwerking van de nieuwe instituties te kunnen constateren.
Daarentegen kwamen wel allerlei institutionele belemmeringen en
weerstanden van de bestaande instituties naar voren, zowel op het niveau
van besluitvormingspatronen als het rolgedrag van politici en
ambtenaren. Interactieve beleidsvorming mobiliseert vooral aan het eind
van het interactieve proces weerstanden. Er doet zich een terugval voor
in 'oude instituties'. De grootste institutionele belemmeringen doen
zich voor op het niveau van het rolgedrag. Politici en (zij het in iets
mindere mate) ambtenaren zijn onzeker en terughoudend om gevestigde
posities te relativeren en naar andere rolinvullingen te zoeken.
Raadsleden stellen zich in de vijf onderzochte processen voornamelijk
passief en afzijdig op
Towards an Informed Citizenry? Information- and communication technologies and electoral choice
What is the significance of ICT's for voting decisions? This chapter assesses two uses of ICT's: (1) databases of the voting records of representatives, and (2) a decision support system for party choice. It examines the information-seeking
behavior of (prospective and retrospective) voters appraising either parties or individual candidates. Empirically, the significance of both ICT's for the voters' level of information seems to be limited, at least when considered separately.
In combination, they provide new information that may attract the interest of more 'Downsian' voters. However, a large-scale and combined use of these ICT's may put the classical liberal model of representation under pressure
ICT Strategies of Democratic Intermediaries
A conceptual framework is proposed for discussing the ICT strategies of intermediaries and their effects on democratic intermediation. The main line of reasoning is that both ‘disintermediation’ and ‘re-intermediation’ have to be related to specific models of democracy and styles of citizenship. The linkage strategies of preference intermediaries, the supportive strategies of information intermediaries and the facilitative strategies of interaction intermediaries are discussed. The quality of democracy would be dependent on the interplay between different democratic practices, types of citizenship and intermediaries
Empowering Communities for Environmental Decision-Making
In this chapter, we discuss the relation between public innovation and the empowerment of local communities. Specifically, we explore the significance of cooperative public innovation efforts for the capability of local communities to participate in environmental decision-making, focusing on the role of environmental information, and information and communication technologies (ICTs). Our case-study is the city of Cleveland (Ohio) in the United States of America where several citizen-government partnerships have emerged on environmental sustainability and in which the access to information is a major element
Intermediaire organisaties, ICT en de toegankelijkheid van electronische overheidsinformatie
ICT-ontwikkelingen zijn relevant voor de vormgeving van de democratie.
In dit artikel wordt ingegaan op de betekenis van ICT voor het optreden
van intermediaire organisaties. Maatschappelijke organisaties gebruiken
ICT om informatie te verspreiden, te analyseren en daarover te
communiceren. ICT biedt nieuwe mogelijkheden voor collectieve actie.
Specifiek wordt ingegaan op de toegankelijkheid van electronische
overheidsinformatie voor maatschappelijke organisaties, op basis van het
'recht op weten' principe. Deze toegankelijkheid is van groot belang
voor het vestigen van democratische machtsevenwichten tussen samenleving
en overheid
The Moderator as an Emerging Democratic Intermediairy: The Role of the Moderator in Internet Discussions about Public Issues
A common approach towards the role of the moderator in Internet
discussions is to see him as a filter. In this article I want to show that the moderator in government-initiated Internet discussions about public issues can be seen as a democratic intermediary, and that this role has the potential to enhance the quality of those discussions as forms of deliberative democracy. I develop a conceptual model of the management of Internet discussions. Five cases of Dutch Internet discussions
about public issues are analyzed. The filter function of moderation appears to be of minor importance. Moderators do a lot more. They manage discussions. Particularly, they contribute to the interactivity and openness of discussions and to the accessibility of public administration and institutional politics. In most of the cases described, there had been independent, ???third party??? moderation. As governments gain more experience with the Internet, moderation may shift to governmental agencies. In this perspective, it is important to stress the transparency and to care for
the negotiableness of moderation
France: A Strong State, Towards a Stronger Local Democracy?
In the political organization of France, the so-called
'Jacobean logic' plays an important role. It stands for a tendency
towards centralisation and uniformity. However, since the 1980s there
has been a process of decentralisation to sub-national authorities.
Grenoble is an example of a city in which new ways of involving citizens
in urban policies are being tried out. Since the 1960s
government-citizens relations in Grenoble are structured via the local
associations, and mainly on the neighbourhood level. The focus of the
city government's recent strategy is to adapt the infrastructure of
citizen participation to the conditions of modern urban life.This means,
for example, that the associations are stimulated to take into account
the level of the agglomeration, and that new forms of involving
individual citizens have been established
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