Does online consultation represent a new paradigm for open governance?

Published in Green Horizon (the quarterly magazine of the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe), this brief article examines the phenomenon of political institutions increasingly using the internet to listen to their constituents and discuss political initiatives and local developments. Specifically, Jerome Simpson traces trends in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to facilitate online consultations that are designed to spur broad stakeholder involvement in debate and policy-making around such issues as biodiversity loss. The question explored here is whether the use of ICTs, particularly the internet, contributes to an increasingly fragmented civil society characterised by lower voter turnout and indifference to government, on the one hand, or whether this communication medium may be "the catalyst for a 'new' civil society...", on the other.

As detailed here, in December 2005, the European Commission's Directorate General (DG) Environment launched an 8-week internet consultation on measures to reach the European Union (EU)'s goal of halting biodiversity loss by 2010. As a follow-up to a broad stakeholder review held from 2004 to 2005, the process was designed to give the general public and experts an additional opportunity to participate online. In Simpson's estimation, it is notable that the internet here helped involve concerned stakeholders of all ages in the political process, particularly those who would not have had the chance to participate in the broadbased stakeholder review; further, the fact that 26 countries contributed is "no small feat." Nonetheless, the author concludes that "the survey offered a structured means of rubber-stamping the EC's shortlisted priorities and fell short of being a true two-way consultation."

Simpson notes that online communities such as this one are flourishing around countless topics - not just locally but inter-entity and transnationally. The internet, he explains, "enables loosely organised and decentralised forms of commitment and participation. It is informal, low key, easily accessible and carries fewer obligations than in the real world." The author cites Pippa Norris, Director of the Democratic Governance Group at the United Nations Development Program, who claims that the transition to the internet (in Simpson's words) "seems to be altering ways of doing things - like lobbying, communication and organising - thereby subtly tipping the balance of power and resources among intermediary political actors."

In conclusion, Simpson refers to the EC's interactive policy making portal Your Voice in Europe, where it is noted that, while they add a "new and important dimension", online consultations will not replace traditional forms of consultation such as written responses to a White Paper but, rather, will complement them.