Pros And Cons Of Participatory Democracy

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Web 2.0 has revolutionized the panorama of the information society: users have become information creators and the new web platforms have become relationship venues where new knowledge and ideas emerge. Is this participation really democratic? Or is this a democracy paradox? Where everyone can interact but the decision making places are all outside the net? Does the participation on the web rather helps the citizens or the Governments and Companies? First of all what is important to define is what means “Participatory democracy”. Participatory democracy has emerged as a catchphrase for more genuine, popular or progressive forms of democratisation. Aragonès and Sànchez-Pàgez define it as a process of collective decision-making where citizens have the power to decide on policy proposals and politicians assume the role of policy implementation (Aragones & Sanchez Pages, 2008). Participatory democracy provides opportunities to overcome the shortcomings of representative democracy by combining it with elements of direct democracy. Officially, as Brown says, participatory democracy is direct democracy, in the sense that all citizens the right to participate and are actively involved in all important decisions. This definition refers to movements, that gather a group of people who democratically make decisions about the direction of …show more content…

All these forms fall under a broad definition of public participation, whereby public concerns are integrated, to a lesser or greater extent, into governmental or corporate decision-making (The Forest of Brocéliande. Participatory Democracy and Public Participation,