The rise of participatory despotism: a systematic review of online platforms for political engagement
| Date | 11 November 2019 |
| Pages | 422-437 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-02-2019-0016 |
| Published date | 11 November 2019 |
| Author | Rose Marie Santini,Hanna Carvalho |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Theriseofparticipatorydespotism:
a systematic review of online
platforms for political engagement
Rose Marie Santini and Hanna Carvalho
School of Communication, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic literature review of empiricalstudies into
online platforms for political participation. The objectivewas to diagnose the relationship between different
types of digital participatory platforms, the real possibilities of participation generated by those initiatives
and the impactof such participation on the decision-makingprocess of governmental representatives.
Design/methodology/approach –A systematic literature review was conducted using pre-defined
terms, expressions and criteria. A total of 434 articles from 1995 to 2015 were gathered from the Web of
Science database. And, 32 studies were selected from those articles for meta-synthesis, and the cases
investigatedwere evaluated according to the e-participationladder model (Smyth, 2001).
Findings –The results indicated that online political participation worldwide remains timid both in
quantity and quality. We have witnessed the growth of a kind of “rhetorical participation”promoted by
policy-makers and the rise of a “participatory despotism”, in which only the privileged partake, while the
majorityremains silent.
Practical implications –The solutions found to promote increased participation and ensure its
effectivenessranged from shaping the platform design in accordancewith citizens’capacities and interests to
a need for profound political–administrative change, which includes the world’s public agencies adopting a
more transparent,inclusive and collaborative approachto decision-making.
Originality/value –This paper proposesa systematic review, mapping the studies on online platformsfor
politicalparticipation, analysing the questions, methods and conclusionsfound by the authors and evaluating
each case studywith a participation ladder.
Keywords Systematic review, E-voting, Political participation, Digital participatory platforms,
Political decision-making
Paper type Literature review
Introduction
In these times of profound crisis of faith in political institutions, new digital technologies
have been adopted both by social movements and by the politicians of various countries
ranging from Latin America to the Middle East, affecting the contemporary political
scenario.
The advent of the internet brought about unprecedented possibilities for social
interaction and the dissemination of information, but how it is used for effective political
engagement and transparency remains a moot point amongst researchers of this area. Its
influence seems to depend on a series of factors, such as the context into which the new
technology is introduced, by whom it is used and with which purpose it is applied
(Pickard, 2008;Vaccari, 2011;Shen and Liang, 2015).
In view of the constant technological transformations and discrepant interpretations,
there is an evident need to analyse the social and political impacts of online platforms
JICES
17,4
422
Received2 February 2019
Revised23 April 2019
Accepted11 May 2019
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.17 No. 4, 2019
pp. 422-437
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-02-2019-0016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
designed to engage citizens in political issues, whether that engagement is promoted by
motivating people to discuss and vote or simply facilitating access to public information.
Those initiatives are defined as digital participatory platforms, a “specific type of civic
technology explicitly built for participatory, engagement and collaboration purposes”
(Falco and Kleinhans, 2018,p.3).
Such is the case of Momentum, a new campaign organisation founded in 2015, that has
played a key role in driving the surge in popularity of the Labour Party under the leadership
of Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, or DemocraciaOS, a free softwaredeveloped in Buenos Aires in
2012 to broaden public participation in political decision-making. Digital participatory
platforms, which encompass those created by social groups, activists, hackers and
academics, as well as those provided by governments, offer new forms of citizen
engagement in the politicalsphere.
The aim of this article is to diagnosethe relationship between the different types of online
political engagement platforms, the real possibilities of participation generated by those
initiatives and the impact of such participationon policy-makers and their decision-making
process. Therefore, the research question is: to what extent does citizens’participation in
digital platformsinfluence the decisions taken by public managers?
A systematic review, based on refereedand peer-reviewed articles, identified the state of
the art of this theme within the scientific community, the types of cases studies and the
practical and theoretical conclusionsreached to date. A systematically executed review also
allows for meta-synthesis of the method types that can be (re)applied in further primary
studies.
This article is split into six sections. Firstly,the concepts related to the theme are briefly
explored. Then the method is described, explaining the criteria and decisions made during
the systematic process. Section 3 presents the data collection and analysis of the results,
highlighting analysis of the case study description, such as year of publication, author’s
nationality, methods usedand types of platforms investigated. Section 4 is a meta-synthesis
of the outcomes found in the primary studies, and in Section 5 the cases are evaluated
according to the levels of political participation based on the e-participation ladder model
(Smyth, 2001). Final considerationsare then presented in the closing section, reinforcing the
most relevant points and limitationsof the study and suggestions for future research.
Digital engagement and political participation
In recent decades, information and communications technologies (ICTs) have carried the
promise of greater mobility of information, transparency and changes to the traditional
political model. In the so-called networksociety (Castells, 2006), the properties of the internet
can be significant for the political field, bringing different actors, from civil society andthe
state, into a mediated channel of communication, allowing citizens to express themselves,
interact with and monitor theirpoliticians (Hung, 2003;Coleman et al., 2008).
Gerbaudo (2012) highlights that the Web has provided a virtual space of aggregation,
where outrage can be shared and users can be united by a feeling of belonging and
solidarity. Likewise, Penteado et al. (2014) reinforce that the multidirectional exchanges in
networked spaces modify both the wayin which politics is done and society itself, opening
the path for debates on the right to public information and new possibilities for citizen
participationin different democraticprocesses.
Since 2010, social movements such as Occupy Wall Street in the USA, Indignados in
Spain and the beginningof the Arabic Spring in the Middle East and NorthAfrica have used
the internet as an important tool to achieve and mobilise citizens. According to
Castells (2017), within the space of a few years, feelings of indignation and hope have
Participatory
despotism
423
To continue reading
Request your trial