Digital Democracy: Democracy in the Light of Information and Communication Technology

Abstract

The purpose of the chapter is to discuss the effects of information and communication technologies on democracy and focuses on the driving forces, citizen and technology, to understand the effects and future implications. The research is based on literature review and uses informative approach to analyze the existing practices in electronic democracy. It inquires the relationship between the theories in communications and democracy, and analyzes the interaction with the citizens from Athenian and the Orwellion perspectives in Politics. It proposes a framework to identify and analyze the driving forces and the issues related to the digital democracy. The resultant effects are important to study as they play a major role in shaping society and uncovering the issues related to direct democracy through integrated technologies. The future of democracy has privacy, security and legal implications but the enlightened citizens, compatible infrastructure and governess bodies will help in eliminating the drawbacks of direct democracy.