E-Voting and the Creation of Trust for the Socially Marginalized Citizens in Brazil

Jose Rodrigues Filho

doi:10.29379/jedem.v2i2.26

Abstract

Abstract: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been implemented in a quite intensive way in both developed and developing countries. In the discourse of the New Public Management (NPM), the principal role of ICT is to improve the delivery of public services to citizens and the distrust of public administration. In responding to distrust and the challenges facing the simplistic technological determinism discourse of ICTs in general and ICT for development in particular, building on areas of trust associated with economic development seems to have been emphasized. On the other hand, despite the influence of institutions in the design and use of ICTs as a compelling enabler of change mentioned in the theory of social shaping and the ideas of citizens’ orientation, where technological artifacts are social constructions, it seems to be evident that these institutions can reinforce the same technological determinism and trust. In this paper an attempt is made to show that the use of a technology like e-voting in Brazil has not contributed to improve political participation and the delivery of public services, despite the attempt to promote and create trust in e-voting. With a more critical view of trust, an attempt is made to show how institutions and technology are enmeshed in a structure of vested interests in the public sector in such a way that a fabricated trust is created smoothly.

Highlights

Rust has been seen as a complex and multifaceted topic of interest since the old civilizations, and some more recent treatment of trust continues to evoke interest across a wide array of disciplines, i.e, psychology, philosophy, sociology, and economics, from different level of analysis—micro/individual, organization/interorganization, society/ economy
In this paper an attempt is made to show that the use of a technology like e-voting in Brazil has not contributed to improve the delivery of public services and political participation, despite the attempt to promote and create trust in e-voting
Trust in e-voting technology in Brazil seems to be fabricated by an intensive marketing propaganda that may be of great interest to corporations as vendors of e-voting machines

Summary

Trust and ICTs for Development

It is stated that while Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) hold the potential to improve the democratic process and the provision of services, expand citizenship and empower the people, they have the ability to perpetuate and reinforce existing economic and social inequalities, leading to a further worsening of poverty. Research on e-government in Brazil, especially local e-government, has shown that ICTs are designed in such a way that they resemble the traditional political structures, avoiding new forms of interaction and participation (Rodrigues Filho, 2010). In this “service-first-anddemocracy later” approach, the relationship between trust and ICTs should be deeply analyzed, especially when “trust is often described as a tool for the generation of profits” (Stahl, 2008, p.127). The mainstream and dominant trust research has to follow and to accept different approaches, hearing the voices of researchers from developing countries, that sometimes are excluded from academic journals and conferences, because of their critical or pessimist view in the way how ICTs are been developed and promoted in both developed and developing countries

Fabricated Trust in E-Voting in Brazil

E-Voting

Findings

Conclusion