Learning to Become an E-citizen: The European and Italian Policies

It is almost generally acknowledged that the application of ICTs may represent a strong vehicle for social innovation and progress in the hands of governments, of political representatives and of citizens. So, when the focus is on e-Democracy, which nowadays represents one major strategic approach of ICT applications, it must be interpreted and explored in connection with the more general, traditional and philosophical concept of Democracy. In the World Wide Web context the citizen becomes an e-Citizen: this means that citizens must learn how to turn real citizens of an electronic community and how to use the Internet possibilities in order to become aware of what e-Citizenship implies. 1 Democracy in Modern Societies It is almost generally acknowledged that the application of ICTs may represent a strong vehicle for social innovation and progress in the hands of governments, of political representatives and of citizens. So, when the focus is on e-Democracy, which nowadays represents one major strategic approach of ICT applications, it must be interpreted and explored in connection with the more general, traditional and philosophical concept of Democracy. The consideration whether or not e-Democracy shall be a natural extension of representative and liberal democracy, as practiced today in most western countries is not to be neglected. Before debating on the possibilities and prospects of eDemocracy implementation, it is necessary to understand the meaning of Democracy and what it nowadays implies. Theories on democracy are numerous. Throughout the centuries, democracy has undergone many changes, as the size of the citizenry has evolved from a narrow, exclusively defined body that participated in a collective will within small city-state (direct democracy), to a universal suffrage system (representative and liberal democracy). Conceptually democracy may be defined in relation with political participation, representation and the citizens’ capacity to choose freely1 [10]. According to James Fishkin [9], four conditions are necessary for citizens’ political participation and engagement: political equality, deliberation, participation, and non-