SCIENCES DE LA SOCIÉTÉ
-
N° 60 - octobre 2003
Local
democracy and Internet
Edited
by Robert BOURE and Gérard
LOISEAU
Robert BOURE, Gérard LOISEAU, Communication
and local democracy. The coming back of politics [Text in french]
Emmanuel EVENO, Soutien de l'Action concertée incitative-Ville
(ACI-Ville) [Text in french]
Rémi LEFEBVRE,
Magali NONJON,
Local democracy in France.
Sources and uses
Isabelle PAILLIART,
A short history of communication
forms in local democracies
Pierre CHAMBAT,
Electronic democracy.
Some groundwork in the genealogy of an issue
Robert BOURE, Alain LEFEBVRE, Citizenship and « citadinity » in the inappropriately
named « local electronic democracy » [Text in french]
Gérard LOISEAU,
The submission of local
web sites to societal patterns
Stéphanie WOJCIK, Local electronic forums. An area of democratic debate ? [Text in french]
Laurence MONNOYER-SMITH, The unmentioned challenges of electronic voting
Paul MATHIAS,
The outline of the reticular
democracy
Jérôme LANG, Electronic vote : algorithmic problems
NOTES
Jean-Thierry JULIA,
Democracy looking for electronics...
A metropolitan area network in Castres-Mazamet [Text in french]
Nicolas PÉLISSIER, Information on line and public sphere in a cross-border
region of the Central Europe
BIBLIOGRAPHIE
INDICATIVE by
Robert BOURE, Jean-Thierry JULIA, Laurence MONNOYER-SMITH and
Stéphanie WOJCIK
CHRONIQUE
Jean CAUNE,
Culture
and the science of information and communication (3) Variations about cultural identity,
disparity and exception
Rémi LEFEBVRE,
Magali NONJON,
Local democracy in France. Sources
and uses
Abstract
This article offers some reflections
on the renewal of local democracy in France since the 1980s. The
aim is both to study the causes of this resurgence and to analyse
the concrete and diverse experiments and practice to which it
has given rise. This process needs to be situated in the history
of local democracy, which is subject to constant rejuvenation.
The recent evolution of the legal framework is the sign of a new
institutionalisation, which does not preclude a high degree of
indeterminacy. Proximity, materialised in neighbourhoods and their
inhabitants, is at the heart of the legitimatising process to
which participatory procedures are subject. The article shows
that participation, even if it is used as an instrument by elected
representatives, nonetheless contributes to a redefinition of
the rules of the local political game.
Keywords : participatory democracy,
neighbourhood councils, practice, proximity, crisis of representation,
local.
Isabelle
PAILLIART,
A short history of communication
forms in local democracies
Abstract
The use of communication tools in
order to develop local democracies has a long-standing tradition
in municipal information. This tradition has existed in France
since the 1920's and, ever since, municipal publications have
served to enlighten their « citizens ». The 1970's
was a particularly rich period, during which structures for participation
were created, information tools multiplied, and conceptions and
criticisms of local democracies confronted each other. In any
case, the use of communication tools fits within a larger context
than just the strengthening of local democracies which includes
improving local public services, increasing visibility of power,
and justifying municipal decisions. Between these two periods,
common points emerge; communication tools show that the notions
of democracy and of public opinion and even the relation between
citizens and power have evolved over time.
Keywords : municipal communication,
local authority, new communication technology, local democracy,
dialogue, opinion.
Pierre
CHAMBAT,
Electronic democracy. Some groundwork
in the genealogy of an issue
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to
examine the relevance of the idea of electronic democracy. This
idea is based on an association between democracy and communication
which raises many issues because of the polysemy of both notions
and the risk of lapsing into technological determinism. That is
why the question of electronic democracy is then placed in an
historical perspective : that of entrusting political questions
to technology. Since World War II, three periods can be distinguished
by intersecting three criteria : the political problems under
consideration, the technology favoured and the ideological orientations
present.
Keywords : political science,
electronic democracy, historical perspective, technological determinism.
Robert BOURE, Alain
LEFEBVRE,
Citizenship and « citadinity »
in the inappropriately named « local electronic democracy
»
Abstract
In this article, a survey of different
meanings that social science assigns to citizenship and «
citadinity » is carried out first. These can be ambiguous,
often disconnected and sometimes intersecting. Then, backed up
by mainly empirical-theoretical research on the social use of
Internet at a local level, the authors show that these two notions
can be considered together and in counterpoint. This approach
helps to partially renew ways of looking at democracy.
Keywords : citizenship, citadinity
, communication netwoks, local public space, proximity, social
sciences
Gérard LOISEAU, The
submission of local web sites to societal patterns
Abstract
Local web sites (IWS) are supposed
to meet, partly, the target of a growing participation of citizens
in town politics. Our last investigations show that, out of 317
web sites of French towns of more than 20,000 inhabitants in 2002,
this political display amounts to scant implementation of electronic
instruments for democracy. Our article, based on these findings,
attempts to bring up to date some of the societal patterns perceptible
in the local management of IWS, the influence of national politics
and local practices of political participation which are at the
base of a situation that refutes the euphoric terms previously
used concerning the ineluctability of electronic democracy.
Keywords : participation, local
democracy, the Internet, social patterns.
Stéphanie WOJCIK, Local
electronic forums. An area of democratic debate ?
Abstract
In a context where the efficiency
and legitimacy of public action would seem to claim for a growing
participation of citizens in collective decisions, the means available
for communicating political information and above all the quality
of Internet activity have given rise to the idea of this media
as being predisposed to political interaction and participation.
At a local level, measures such as chat rooms result in having
to reconsider the debate, one of the key elements in the democratic
process, in its electronic modes. From the observation of 45 French
towns' local chat rooms, this article specifically questions how
representative and competent Internet users are in debating on
local political issues, how the local authority deals with this
verbal interaction and how it could be articulated with political
decisions.
Keywords : debate, the Internet,
local democracy, towns.
Laurence
MONNOYER-SMITH,
The unmentioned challenges of electronic
voting
Abstract
This article first focuses on the
different types of electronic voting systems and offers a synthesis
on European voting pilot schemes. It then stresses that the main
challenges of the local implementation of e-voting are not technological
ones but rather lie in the perception of citizenship from which
these new voting platforms have been conceived. We then insist
on the need for public debate to expose the contradictory aspects
of citizenship and consequently develop new voting procedures
and political participation in a broader sense.
Keywords : e-voting, Internet,
citizenship, technical mediation, secrecy and security.
Paul
MATHIAS,
The outline of the reticular democracy
Abstract
In guaranteeing an equitable distribution at a local level of
instruments of political, economic and social action, the Internet
seems to hold promise of becoming the preferential sphere for
exercising the democratic process. The difficulties such a process
has to overcome cannot, however, be reduced to matters of technological
equipment and competence. In truth, what is at stake for a reticular
democracy is of the hermeneutical order, and amounts to the effective
but laborious reckoning with the expression of a public opinion
which is very narrowly regio-nal and basically insignificant.
Keywords : Internet, democracy,
networks, public sphere, citizenship, technology, e-vote.
Jérôme
LANG,
Electronic vote : algorithmic problems
Abstract
This short article gives a few informal elements for analyzing
the so-called « computational » problems raised by
electronic vote, i.e., the algorithmic difficulties involved in
the implemen-tation of effective computation procedures for solving
the problems posed, and briefly investigates the solutions that
computer science (and more specifically, operation research and
artificial intelligence) brings for solving these complex problems.
Keywords : e-vote, computation,
operation research, artificial intelligence.