Online platforms for citizen participation: meta-synthesis and critical analysis of their social and political impacts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.36(2019).2350Keywords:
democracy, meta-synthesis, online platforms, political participation, systematic literature review (SLR)Abstract
The technological and communicational development of recent years has led to the creation of online platforms both by governors and by civil society sectors, with the promise of enhancing citizen participation. Despite enthusiastic discussions regarding the issue in different spheres, not enough is known about the real potential of online participation and its effectiveness in the political decision-making process. This article proposes a critical analysis of citizen participation on online platforms, their social and political characteristics and consequences. Two systematic literature reviews (SLR) are conducted on case studies – the first one exclusively in Brazil and the second one on cases all over the world – using the Web of Science, Scopus and DOAJ databases, between 1995 and 2015. Primary results indicate a significant growth in participatory platforms in Brazil and the world, however with more rhetorical than practical effects: the majority of the initiatives are promoted by top-down style governmental electronic portals, with little or no influence in the real decision-making process. This article concludes that power – and not technology – is the key obstacle for effective online citizen participation, whose barriers are nurtured by a traditional political elite with little interest in building a transparent, inclusive and collaborative democracy. A new research agenda is suggested to develop public information transparency indicators – methods to measure the social and political impact of the governmental online platforms – as well as investment in empirical studies about civil society initiatives that could promote solutions for the problems, side effects and contradictions intrinsic to online political participation.
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