Teledemocracy and the National Assembly of Wales

This paper describes the case of the National Assembly of Wales and the relevance of information and communications technology (ICT) to supporting its internal and external democratic processes. We review a number of tele-democracy initiatives from around the world and develop a case study of tele-democracy as it impacts upon a recent attempt to introduce a form of devolved government in the UK. We consider the current manner in which ICT is being used by the National Assembly of Wales to conduct its internal processes. We also consider some of the ways in which the National Assembly makes use of ICT to enable its links with the Welsh population. We examine some of the problems experienced, and consider some of the possible ways in which tele-democracy may be encouraged within Wales in the future.