Empowering communities to action: Reclaiming local democracy through ICT

This paper reports on research to develop an emergent model for citizen-centred local eDemocracy. It exposes local democracy as a flawed and failing ideal, where the emergent reality is one of significant frustration on the part of community activists who often feel unheard and where progress is slow and hard-fought. Despite legislation requiring effective consultation, local government intrinsically values the input of community less than its own advice or that of external consultants. Risk mitigation and technocracy are alive and well and they are stifling local democracy. Ironically then, it emerges that expertise in the use of ICT lies in the community, not local government.