Contents: Preface. 1. Electronic voting: an introduction. 2. E-democracy, e-governance and public net-work. 3. Democracy in the information age. 4. Democracy and cyberspace. 5. The internet and the governance. 6. Democracy and shared life. 7. Digital democracy and civil society. 8. Perspectives on citizen democratisation. 9. The democracy network DNet. 10. Transparency through technology. Bibliography. Index.

Cyberdemocracy brings with it the opportunity for a reassessment of the methods by which government services are provided. Through increasing departmental utilisation of the online environment, access to details of government services and initiatives could be extended to include all regardless of their geographic location and with no limitation of this access to public service working hours. Numerous opportunities exist with respect to possible new dimensions of government presence in an online environment.

The internet provides a distinctive structure of opportunities that has the potential to renew interest in civic engagement and participation. Civic engagement can be understood to include three distinct dimensions: political knowledge (what people learn about public affairs), political trust (the public's orientation of support for the political system), and political participation (conventional activities designed to influence government and the decision-making process). The lower cost of information exchange on the internet, as well as the high level of reach that the content potentially had made the internet an attractive medium for political information, particularly amongst social interest groups and parties with lower budgets. (jacket)