Abstract

The new information access provided by Internet is creating a great opportunity for people's direct involvement in political decisions. Democracy is just that, but somehow it has evolved to be the work of professional politicians with the help of a free press and influence groups. The role of the individual citizen in the recent past was reduced to periodically choose his representative among a small group of candidates. This is a practical solution to the fact that people could not decide every issue. The Internet, however, can be used to allow the citizen to participate in the asynchronous discussion of issues relevant to him. Both at the local community level and at the state level, people can submit ideas, comment on law proposals, cast vote on current issues, and give suggestions to their representatives. Of course, that could have been done without networks as well, but it was cumbersome and not feasible on a large scale. The presentation is illustrated with the case of Chile. A large number of youngsters in this country feel alienated by politics. A dismayingly high proportion of new potential electors simply choose not to enroll as citizens with vote right. That situation is very dangerous to the long-term survival of democracy as a way to govern this society. Fortunately, youngsters are very enthusiastic Internet users. If they are provided with the means to effectively reach the political decision makers and influence them, there is hope not only to make them participate in politics but to revitalize democracy. The paper presents the conceptual design of an Internet-based system intended to enable such participation.