‘Facilitating Active Citizenship’ is the title of a status report on eParticipation in the UK and Germany, published by the British Council in Germany in co-operation with politik-digital, a German organisation that monitors the impact of the German-language Internet on citizen-friendly political communication. The study is available in German and English.

The report itself draws few direct comparisons or conclusions, beyond noting that eDemocracy, like any other democracy, is nothing if not participative. For the most part, the study consists of well-researched and interesting practical examples from both countries.

An accompanying article on politik-digital digs a little deeper. “It is noticeable that eParticipation in Britain is already much more strongly integrated into everyday political life than in Germany,” writes politik-digital’s Christoph Dowe. “The Scottish and British parliaments provide extensive good practice on getting citizens and politicians talking to each other better. British public service broadcasting has now come to see itself as also being an ‘enabler’, not only delivering information but also creating the infrastructure for citizens to become politically active themselves.”

Dowe ascribes the differences between German and British approaches to attitudes predating the Internet: the British ‘Speakers’ Corner’ tradition of soapbox politics versus the feeling within German political institutions that they “have no legroom for experiments, because they might fail”. In IT terms, he dubs this “the German fear of the beta version”. But as Dowe himself points out, the report is only a snapshot. There is plenty more scope for eParticipation in the UK, Germany and everywhere else.

- Download report in English (pdf, 1.9 mb, 84 pages)
- Download report in German (pdf, 1.73 mb, 89 pages)