Better use of technology could lead to more open government | | Independent Notebook - A selection of Independent views. Getty Images News Across the world, technology has transformed the relationship between consumers and businesses. The unprecedented opportunities it provides to easily and instantly connect with each other and with information is changing the way we communicate, how we do business and how we live our lives.
By putting power in the hands of billions of consumers, prices have fallen and the choice and quality of goods and services have improved dramatically. Businesses, too, are gaining through the chance to know their customers better, strengthening relationships, building trust and increasing sales. But while individuals as consumers are already reaping these benefits, as citizens they have yet to see the same improvements. Governments have often been slow to see the advantages that openness and dialogue brings for their countries. Some, to be frank, remain suspicious of the power it might hand to individuals and communities. Slowly but surely we are seeing this change.
DeliberationBrief.pdf (application/pdf Object) Why democracies fail: Lessons from Mali? EDITOR’S NOTE: There are four reasons young democracies fail. Center for Global Development visiting fellow Ethan Kapstein details these reasons in his article in the Global Development: Views from the Center blog. The recent coups in the Maldives and Mali against democratically elected leaders, and the continuing political struggles in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya following the Arab Spring, are potent reminders that democracy is a fragile institution. In fact, of the 120 attempts at democratization that have occurred around the world since 1960, nearly half have been reversed at some point.
The reasons for democratic failure, however, are surprising. Nor do democracies reverse while undergoing the process of economic reform. Finally, democracies are no more likely to be sustained by adopting parliamentary instead of presidential institutions. Why, then, do democracies fail? The democratic reversals that have occurred since the publication of our book in 2008 broadly confirm our findings. JEP 4/2011. Schwerpunktredaktion: Frederik Holst, Wolfram Schaffar Ever since the Internet became a widespread medium of mass communication in the 1990s, its influence on democratic development has been a central issue.
New and relatively unrestricted ways to access and disseminate information were and still are seen as a means of undermining control mechanisms in authoritarian societies. More than a decade later, and in the light of the so-called ‘Facebook revolution' in the Arab world, the authors in this volume seek to approach the impact of the Internet from different perspectives, beyond over-optimistic expectations of change in democratic practices. Im Zuge der Verbreitung des Internet als Medium für Massenkommunikation in den 1990er Jahren wurde auch immer wieder dessen Bedeutung für Demokratisierungsprozesse diskutiert. Frederik Holst, Wolfram Schaffar Internet und Demokratie Christoph Amthor Virtuelle Heimat und reale Chancen: Online-Mediennutzung der birmanischen Diaspora.
M-governance: Exploratory Survey on Kenyan Service Delivery and Government Interaction. iHub Research By Angela Okune / February 29, 2012 M-governance: Exploratory Survey on Kenyan Service Delivery and Government Interaction Apologies for the late post! This has been in our backlog for a long time. Better late than never! A one-week of exploratory fieldwork was conducted in Nairobi in November 2011 , with the aim of investigating citizens’ opinions on the best methods to interact with government. The purpose of the study was to seek answers to the following core questions: What are Kenyan citizens’ understandings of governance? Respondents were asked for their understanding of the term, “governance.”
The initial findings reveal that Kenyans believe governance is all about the government. Data on citizen interactions with government service providers reveals that the respondents on the whole had more negative experiences than positive experiences. Regarding topics that people would like to discuss with the government, the following findings were obtained: Author : Angela Okune.