e-Democracy and Participatory Decision Processes: Lessons from e-Negotiation Experiments

e-Democracy takes place at different levels, ranging from local to regional to state governments. It also takes different forms: voting, consultation, and the participation in the construction of the alternative course of actions. This paper is concerned with the use of information and communication technologies in participative e-democracy at community and local government levels. It postulates that to design participating systems the needs of the potential users must be determined and models of decision-making and conflict resolution that can be used by lay people need to be constructed. A general framework for the design of systems for participatory decision-making is presented. The experiences with the design and deployment of the Inspire e-negotiation support system, its use by a large number of people from many countries, and the results of studies of the users and the use of Inspire are presented. Based on these experiences, an example of the implementation of the general framework is given. The paper also stresses the need for the development of aids and materials for lay people who wish to educate themselves in participating in e-democratic processes.