Electronic rulemaking: a public participation research agenda for the social sciences

Abstract

This article proposes a social science research agenda that will reflect on and inform the development of new information technology-based approaches to the electronic collection, distribution, synthesis. and analysis of public commentary in the regulatory rulemaking process. It identifies one critical area of an ongoing governance transformation: the use of web-based programs to collect public commentary on proposed agency rules. In the tradition of reflexive modernization, this article calls for deeper social science reflection during the development of a technological design in order to tap its democratic potential.