Make a Democracy.com? Democracy and technologies

Abstract

Internet may become a channel to promote horizontal accountability, creating a more cooperative interaction between citizens, government officials and civil society organizations. The growing crisis of representation has caused the state modernization to each time appear increasingly as the central focus in politician campaigns. But before building and implementing enormous reform processes, it is necessary to research whether the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has actually contributed to the state reform and what uses these instruments receive from governors and citizens. Information Society logic is not unavoidable: Internet and the ICT will modify the grammar of the political power, but we do not know how. It depends on what use we will give them. They will democratize the access and distribution of information if they are used intelligently in a society with digital culture. If not, these tools will increase exclusion patterns and imperfect democracies.