Competing Visions of eDemocracy in Greenland: Negotiations of Power in Online Political Participation

Abstract

By offering new and alternative possibilities for political participation the Internet challenges established and conventional democratic practices and positions. The article explores how legislators and public administration employees at national and municipality levels in Greenland address these possibilities and challenges when they envision eDemocracy. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory and the works of Foucault, the article argues that eDemocratic visions are conditioned by discourses that are continuously shaped by power strategies, ongoing events, and the associations among a wide variety of human and nonhuman actors. The article argues for a two-step approach to understand the process by which eDemocracy is constructed. First, by tracing the associations among the actors that contribute to the construction, and second by analyzing the power relations that make certain visions of eDemocratic more likely or needed than others. The article concludes that eDemocracy as envisioned by Greenlandic legislators and public administration employees involves the citizenry to a greater degree than conventional practices, but also implies unequal power relations among citizens, legislative bodies, and the public administration.