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Role of information democracy and e-governance for political system and civil society in Ukraine


Work number - M 81 ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE

Author:  Mytko Antonina Mykolaevna

Submitted by Lesya Ukrainka Eastern European National University

The conceptual basis of the information democracy has been grounded within the framework of the structural and functional, political and systems approaches. It has been proved that the information democracy asserts itself as the model of systemic, social and state organization of the 21st century states, the essence of which comprises the creation of an information state as the interlink of networks of human communities interaction in all spheres of the humanitarian development of the state, society, economy.

It is for the first time in political science within the single complex and holistic research that information democracy has been studied as a new form of democracy. Because of the lack of the precise definition of the term the author’s treatment of the information democracy has been offered. The matrix of the i-democracy consists of the following types: “teledemocracy”, “cyberdemocracy”, “virtual democracy”, “e-democracy”, “digital democracy”, “on-line democracy”, “Internet democracy”, “network democracy”. The differences between the definitions have enabled to single out different technological and processual  aspects in its practical realization. Because of the absence of the definitions of such notions as “information sate” and “information retardation” the conceptual and categorical apparatus has been supplemented with these terms.

The next infodemocracy determinants have been defined:  inefficiency of the representative democracy because of the restriction in the citizens’ participation in state’s activity. The information democracy may become the form that will approximate the ideal democracy;  the destruction of the traditional communications that provokes the creation of the information state; the transfer of all spheres of human life into electronic format, including political system; the necessity to combat the distrust to political institutions, elections, closedness of the authority, inaccessibility of information and decision-making process; the transit to “soft power” instruments to solve the problems within the international relations system etc.

The i-democracy processes are determined on three levels: macropolitical, micropolitical and mediation. On the macropolitical level the information state works on the basis of information structure of the state authority bodies that provided efficient realization of the majority of state government functions via political communication. It is primarily directed at interaction of the state machinery with citizens, society and business structures on the basis of new information technologies. Globalization and the development of the information democracy on the macropolitical level are changing drastically the appearance of the modern world.

Three models of the information democracy are offered, namely, technocratic, consultative and processual. The aim of the technocratic model is to provide the administrative (state) services to the population in electronic form, to introduce electronic forms of interaction between local authority bodies, regional executive authority and citizens; the project instruments envisage the implementation of the system of information and analytical provision of granting pilot administrative services in the electronic form. The processual model of the information democracy solves the tasks of information resources management. The consultative model of the information democracy is the least developed, it is based on the formation and usage of dialogue forms of political participation, on the principle of open partnership between the authority and citizens under which they are equal subjects of relations. The mechanism of public opinion is one of the most efficient mechanisms of the information democracy impact.

The main world’s trends of the information democracy development are considered to be the next: the enhancement of mutual cooperation and mutual usage of information for all sides; the increase of electronic instruments application, despite the fact that on-line government sites, unlike political and legal ones, avoid its mass usage; the increase of web-portals, web-sites as well as mechanisms of citizens’ participation in state affairs via Internet communities and social networks; the constant growth of innovations and the ability to respond to the users’ needs; rapid development of the social market of ideas; openness accelerates the processes of democracy improvement; rapid growth of investments in electronic governments, parliament, plebiscites and voting.

We have singled out and characterized the stages of Ukraine’s entrance in global information space and development of the information democracy, specifically, the first stage (1991–1997) is the birth of the information democracy; the second stage (1998–2004) is characterized by the informatization of different spheres of society’s life and authority institutions, and by the outset of e-governance and e-government application; the third stage (2005–2009) lay the ground for the development of the digital democracy, network- and teledemocracy which became the corner-stone of the processual model; the fourth stage (2010–2014) lay the ground for the development of the consultative model when such instruments are used. The problems of the development of Ukraine’s information democracy have been defined and the system of measures to optimize the process of Ukraine’s information democracy has been elaborated. Taking into account the realities of this state, we see the settlement of the problem in the solution of a number of tasks, namely, organizational, consultative, educational etc.

Key words: information, mass media, democracy, the political system, implementation, implementation, model, state information, the political process, institutions,e-governance.

Series of scientific papers consists of 89publications: Tutorial, textbook, the individual monograph, structural parts of monographs, specialized academic journals, teaching journals, abstracts, other scientific journals  published within 9years.

Works cited authors in 23journals, general publications, citation index is 3.

   The total number of publications – 89.

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