Hansard society: e-petitions at Westminster: The way forward for democracy?

Parliamentary Affairs

Volumn 62, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 162-177

  Miller, Laura ^a  

^a Hansard Society

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EID: 58149121803     PISSN: 00312290     EISSN: 14602482     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/pa/gsn044     Document Type: Article

References (75)

1. I would like to thank my research assistant, Jonathan Goodstone, and colleagues-Susanna Kalitowski, Beccy Allen and Andy Williamson-for comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
2. See 2008, e-Petitions: Procedure Committee Report on e-Petitions, Leader of the House of Commons, which refers to 2008, HC 136, e-Petitions.
3. 2007, CM 7193, The Governance of Britain - Petitions: The Government's response to the Procedure Committee's First Report, session 2006-2007, on Public Petitions and Early Day Motions.
4. HC 136, op. cit.
5. Hansard Society, Audit of Political Engagement 4, Hansard Society & Electoral Commission, 2007.
6. C. Hay, G. Stoker and A. Williamson, 'Revitalising Politics; Have we Lost the Plot?' Paper to be presented to the Rivitalising Politics Conference, November 2008, London.
7. A. Chadwick, 'Bringing e-Democracy Back in: Why It Matters for Future Research on E-Governance', Social Science Computer Review, 21, 2003, 443-55;
8. see also G. Stoker, Why Politics Matters: Making Democracy Work, Paigrave Macmillan, 2006.
9. M. Mälkiä, A.V. Anttiroiko and R. Savolainen (eds), eTrans formation in Governance: New Directions in Government and Politics, Idea Group, 2004.
10. C. Needham, 'The Citizen as consumer: E-government in the United Kingdom and the United States', In R. Gibson, A. Römmele and S. Ward (eds), Electronic Democracy, Routledge, 2004, pp, 47-48.
11. J. K. Galbraith, The Culture of Contentment, Houghton Mifflin, 1992, p. 67.
12. A, Kakabadse, N.K. Kakabadse and A, Kouzmin, 'Reinventing the Democratic Governance Project Through Information Technology? A Growing Agenda for Debate', Public Administration Review, 63, 2003, 44-60.
13. Ipsos MORI's annual survey highlights the fact that politicians and journalists consistently rank lowest in terms of public trust (see Ipsos Mori, 2008; Trust in Professions, 2007). However, the role of the media in shaping public understandings of 'the political' and in foregrounding particular issues should not be underestimated; however much the public claims not to trust journalists, they still tune in,
14. Cabinet Office, 2002, In the service of democracy.
15. L. Miller and A. Williamson, Digital Dialogues, Hansard society, 2008;
16. see also E. Mayo and T. Steinberg, The Power of Information Review, 2007, Cabinet Office.
17. R. Ferguson (ed.), Tell Parliament, Hansard Society, 2006.
18. 2007, CM7170, The Governance of Britain; 2007, CE 04891, An Action Plan for Community Empowerment: Building on Success.
19. OFCOM, The Communications Market 2008.
20. A. Williamson, 'Speaking Out, Being Heard: An Emergent Online Model for Community Participation in Local Democracy', in L.S.G. Johanson (ed.), Constructing and Sharing Memory: Community Informatics, Identity and Empowerment, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007,
21. W.H. Dutton and E.J. Helsper, The Internet in Britain, Oxford Internet Institute, 2007.
22. 2007, HC 529, Government on the Internet: Progress in Delivering information and Services Online,
23. Increasingly, politics attract a general (rather than niche) readership. During elections, around 37 per cent of the US population goes online to find out about the candidates {see L. Rainie, M, Cornfield and J. Horrigan, The Internet and Campaign 2004, retrieved 29 May 2008 from www.pewlnternet.org/ pdfs/PlP...2004....Campaign.pdf). However, a general interest in politics is required before the Internet becomes useful in connecting people to politics (see, for example, M. Prior, 'News vs. Entertainment: How increasing Media Choice Widens Gaps in political Knowledge And Turnout', American Journal of Political Science, 49, 2005, 577-592).
24. Ongoing research into the democratising influence of the Internet suggests that online deliberations do not necessarily lead to increased levels of activism, (see A. Malina, 'e-Transforrning Democracy in the UK: Considerations of Developments and Suggestions for Empirical Research", Communications: The European journal of Communication Research, 28, 2003, 135-155;
25. see also M. Margolis and D. Resnick, Politics as Usual: The Cyberspace "Revolution", Sage, 2000, who suggest that government strategies for e-engagement tend to only reach those who are already involved in deliberations.) It has been suggested that online political communication simply speeds up the development of the existing networks and shores up the existing systems of knowledge and power (see N. Gane, 'Computerized Capitalism; the Media Theory of Jean-Francois Lyotard', Information Communication and Society, 6, 2003, 430-450).
26. T. Witschge, 'Online Deliberation: Possibilities of the Internet for Deliberative Democracy', Paper presented at the Euricom Colloquium; Electronic Networks and Democratic Engagement, Nijmegen, Netherlands, 9-12 October 2002.
27. B. Bimber, 'The Internet and Political Transformation; Populism, Community and Accelerated Pluralism', Polity, 31, 1998, 133-160.
28. R. Freeman and J. Rogers, 'Open Source Unionism: Beyond Exclusive Collective Bargaining', Working USA: Journal of Labor and Society, 5, 2002, 3-4;
29. see also L.J. Gurak and J. Logie, 'Internet Protests, form Texts to Web', in M. MeCaughey and M.D. Ayers (eds), Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice, Routledge, 2003.
30. CM 7170, op. cit.
31. 2007, HC 513, Public Petitions and Early Day Motions.
32. The full response is available at: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ saynoto0870/
33. The road-pricing scheme is described as being 'left to die quietly', The Economist, 29 November 2007): http://www.economist.com/world/britain/ displaystory.cfm?story-id=10214788. The Evening Standard (13.2.07) describes how senior government ministers have dubbed e-Petitions a 'public relations disaster',
34. A brief discussion of the reasons why e-Petitions have been rejected is given on the No. 10 'Facts and Figures' page, which is available at: http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page11051.
35. The Guardian (20.8.2008) summarises perspectives about No. 10's response to a petition calling on the Prime Minister to allow well known TV personality, Jeremy Clarkson, to take over his role-see here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/ politics/blog/2008/aug/20/gordonbrown.media. No. 10's approach to humorous petitions here: http://www.number 10.gov.uk/Page 11051
36. An account of the controversy around the anti-Mega Mosque petition can be found in the Guardian (16,5,2007), or downloaded from: http://www.guardian.co. uk/politics/2007/may/16/immigrationpolicy. religion.
37. HC 136, op. cit.
38. HC 136, op. cit., paragraph 20.
39. P. McLaverty, S. Morris and L. Strangward, Development of Public Engagement with the Work of the Scottish Parliament Committees, Robert Gordon, 2004.
40. J. Seaton, The Scottish Parliament and e-Democracy, Scottish Parliament, 2005.
41. A. Malina, A. Macintosh and E. Davenport, E-Petitioner: A Monitoring and Evaluation Report, Joseph Rowntree Trust, 2001,
42. J. Carman, The Assessment of the Scottish Parliament's Public Petitions System 1999-2006, Scottish Parliament Paper 654, 2006.
43. HC 136, op. cit.
44. L. Maer, Proposals for an E-petitions System for the House of Commons, Parliament and Constitution Centre Standard Note: SN/PC70475, 2008.
45. Malina et al., 2001, op. cit.
46. HC 136, op. cit.
47. 2007, HC 513, Public Petitions and Early Day Motions, paragraph 17;
48. see also CM 7193, op. cit., paragraph 6.
49. HC 136, op. cit.
50. HC 136, op. cit., question 78.
51. CM 7193, op. cit., paragraph 7.
52. HC 136, op. cit.
53. HC 136, op. cit., paragraph 87.
54. HC 136, op. cit., evidence 58.
55. HC 136, op. cit., paragraph 134.
56. HC 136, op. cit., paragraph 113.
57. CM 7193, op. cit., paragraph 14.
58. HC 136, op. cit.
59. CM 7193, op. cit., paragraph 11.
60. 2004, HC 1248, Public Petitions.
61. 2004, HC 369, Connecting Parliament with the Public.
62. CM 7193, op. cit.
63. HC 136, op. cit., paragraph 115.
64. 2008, Office of the Leader of the House of Commons, op. cit.
65. HC 369, op. cit., paragraph 99.
66. HC 136, op. cit.
67. HC 136, op. cit., Question 94 and Question 146.
68. HC 136, op. cit., paragraph 136.
69. HC 136, op. cit.
70. HC 136, op. cit., paragraph 114.
71. HC 136, op. cit., paragraph 123.
72. HC 136, op. cit.
73. HC 136, op. cit., paragraph 133.
74. HC 136, op. at., paragraph 129.
75. HC 136, op. cit.