E-participation – involvement in the ICT age

Artykuł opisuje nowoczesną formę uczestnictwa mieszkańców w tworzeniu prawa i dokumentów strategicznych na przykładzie Estonii. Estonia to państwo, które jako jedno z pierwszych w Europie wprowadziło głosowanie internetowe, podpis internetowy czy mobile-ID, czyli cyfrowy dowód osobisty zamieszczony na karcie SIM. To właśnie dzięki innowacjom Estonia w ciągu ostatnich 25 lat stała się „bałtyckim tygrysem”. Warto wyciągać wnioski z sukcesów państwa, które dokonania zarówno w zakresie gospodarki, jak i rozwiązań ICT budzą podziw na całym świecie.During the last fourteen years amount of the Internet users increased more than 7 times – to 3035,7 million people in 2014. In North America around 87,7% of the population have access to the Internet, whereas in Europe it reaches nearly 70,5%. The Estonian government decided that being connected is one of the most important human rights nowadays. In consequence Estonia spent 2-7% of their budget developing broadband Internet connections and e-administration tools, as well as for effective social dialogue improvement. During the last fourteen years the Estonian government completed three e-participation projects, developed useful electronic tools for improving citizens’ access to public life and invited self-government to adapt e-participation systems in local environment. Example: Today I Shall Decide (2000-2006) – first pioneer electronic participation project in Europe. Government agencies have run a website, where citizens could propose, discuss and vote for their propositions of new legislation. In seven years time, people submitted 1187 new proposals, 1% of which was entered into force. Though TID was innovative it had some issues like declining interests and disappointing involvement of the officials. Estonia has also run Osale.ee (from 2007) – heir of the TID project. A perfect website with 3 key features: deliberation, participation and information. With this project they increased the engagement of the officials and users are taken more serious – and Volis – project where government assists local governments in improvement of e-participation systems. In March 2000 Estonian parliament gave e-signature the same legal weight as traditional one. Since 2005 every Estonian citizen has the possibility to vote via Internet from every place in the world. Estonia is an example of modern governing in post- -socialist world. Polish public agencies should learn from them and create effective e-governance to become a friendly and modern state