The Information Revolution, E-Democracy, at the Local Level - A Failing Dream?

Globalization and new information and communications technologies are transforming the role of cities. According to Manuel Castells, the information age is ushering in a new urban form, the informational city. (Vol. 1, 398) Local governance, then, matters more than ever. At the same time governance at all levels is said to be accompanied by a democratic deficit and declining legitimacy. One of hope of ICTs is that in a globalizing world they can ameliorate the democratic deficit and close the gap between citizens, their representatives and other policy-makers. In principle local governments are supposed to be closest to their citizens and the most democratically accessible level of government, the space where e-democracy should have the greatest potential. Yet, I argue, in a comparison of the evidence - studies, polls, and an analysis of urban websites - in four countries, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia that e-democracy is failing. It has become subordinated to the hegemony of neo-liberalism with its emphasis on the service state and the citizen as consumer, not democratic participant. Despite this, I argue, citizens are using ICTs democratically, forming networks, linking the local and the global but not in a manner intended by state authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]