Internet Voting and the Democratic Deficit
 
 

Introduction   This paper discusses the current debate about Internet voting. The debate is relevant because many democracies are experiencing a decline in political participation, along with increasing cynicism and declining trust in politicians and democratic processes, among its citizens. Governments are trying to find ways to address these problems and reduce the democratic deficit. Is Internet voting the cure to the democratic deficit? This paper argues that in most cases Internet voting will not reduce the democratic deficit. It is only when Internet voting fills a void where there used to be no democracy at all, that it can have truly positive effects on democracy and political participation. In other cases Internet voting may help to make election processes more legitimate, efficient and convenient. It is certainly a trend in Western democracies to place a lot of hopes and expectations on technology. This is true for Internet voting too. However, we should remember that even if we insert “Internet” before voting, it is still voting that we are talking about. In other words, voting alone is not what makes a democracy function. It is therefore not realistic to expect Internet voting to be the miracle cure to all that is wrong with modern democracies. This is by no means to suggest that Internet voting is entirely useless and a waste of money. It can certainly help to address the problem with the democratic deficit in some cases. This paper is divided in two sections. The first section discusses the pros and cons with Internet voting. It also provides some examples of Internet voting experiments. The second section discusses Internet voting in three places: in the EU, in the United States and in Sweden. It provides evidence for my argument that Internet voting does not have universally applicable outcomes, but rather that its effects depend on where, how and why it is used.      Next>>