Abstract

CARDOSO, Gustavo; CUNHA, Carlos  and  NASCIMENTO, Susana. O parlamento português na construção de uma democracia digital. Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas [online]. 2003, n.42, pp.113-140. ISSN 0873-6529.

The object of the present article is to analyze the practices and attitudes of members of the Portuguese parliament in their general use of information and communication technologies, particularly the Internet, with regard to their parliamentary and party activities, in the context of a possible digital democracy. On the basis of the analysis model developed within the European COST A14 WG1 action, using questionnaires and interviews with Portuguese MPs, it was possible to arrive at a characterization revealing specific aspects of the political appropriation of the Internet to communicate vertically with the electorate and horizontally with other parliamentary structures. The analysis carried out also led to the realization that the restraints on the development of a digital democracy in Portugal are essentially the result of three factors: a media system in which television predominates, a parliamentary political system that does not encourage direct contact with the electorate and, lastly, citizens with little motivation to participate politically, who also tend not to encourage greater political appropriation of the Internet in parliamentary matters.

Keywords : Digital democracy; parliament; IT - information technology.

        · abstract in Portuguese | French | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )