Public electronic petitions and civil participation. Summary

In the course of its long history, the petition system has been repeatedly adapted and modernised to changing conditions, including the internet as a new medium for transmitting and publishing petitions as well as for communicating about petitions. Accordingly, the German Bundestag started a two-year pilot project "Public Petitions" in 2005, in which petitions could be made public and discussed via the internet and supporters could be recruited. On the initiative of the Petitions Committee, the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB) was commissioned to carry out an evaluation of this pilot project. This was to be embedded in a more comprehensive examination of the question of what new possibilities, but also what problems, the use of the internet in petitioning could lead to. KEY FINDINGS > Even in modern democratic states governed by the rule of law, petitioning has not lost its appeal; in fact, its importance has increased in many places. E-petition systems make a particular contribution to this. > Although e-petition systems are not yet widely used, they are currently one of the central activities in the field of e-democracy and e-participation, especially in the parliamentary sphere. It is to be expected that in the next few years government agencies will increasingly introduce electronic petition systems. > The pilot project "Public Petitions" of the German Bundestag can be considered a success, despite some serious shortcomings in its implementation. With it, petitions are made publicly accessible via the internet, the petition process becomes more transparent and citizens can actively contribute with supporting signatures or contributions to discussions. > With the pilot project, the first steps towards more transparency, accessibility and participation have been taken. However, not even 2% of all petitions are currently published on the internet. It remains open whether the German Bundestag wants to continue along this path towards more transparency and publicity. > Electronic petition systems have so far not led to a general increase in the number of petitions and only to a very limited extent to a greater representativeness of those involved: Women, population groups with lower levels of education and younger age groups continue to be significantly underrepresented among petitioners. > The problem that the desired and realised greater discursiveness, as expressed in the discussion forums on petitions on the internet, is not adequately received and processed by the actual petition addressees remains largely unresolved. > Although the political effects of electronic petition systems are difficult to assess, it can be said with all due caution that the introduction of electronic petition systems has strengthened the respective petition bodies in terms of publicity and that - due to the greater publicity of petitions - it can be assumed that the political system reacts more sensitively and attentively to citizens\u27 concerns