Estonian Human Development Report

Table 5.3.5. Connections between political activeness and
various online activities (percentage of respondents who
considered a given activity to be either very important or
important with regard to characterizing their Internet use)
General interest in politics
and activeness
Searching for information
on the websites of
local governments
Searching for practical
information (weather,
timetables, etc.)
Communicating with
officials, transaction of
affairs online
Using an online banking
solution
Using e-services (tax
board, forms, etc.)
Participating in
forums, blogs, writing
comments
Participating in civic
initiatives, signing
online petitions
Not at all 6 44 7 50 22 15 3
Little 7 48 15 57 22 16 1
Considerable 14 49 15 68 39 11 4
Significant 22 47 23 71 46 7 2
Very significant 27 48 29 73 46 7 1
Source: Mina. Maailm. Meedia 2008
field, the various institutions and local governments certainly
have many opportunities for further development.
On a critical note, however, it is clear that a significant
and lasting improvement in the quality of life through ICT
can only occur in conjunction with the active participation
of informed and enlightened citizens who have a good
grasp of administrative processes. In order for our citizens
to be able to contribute to this development process, Estonia’s
public institutions should seriously improve their provision
of daily information through e-channels. Another
important step in increasing the e-participation of citizens
involves the refinement of existing participation spaces and
the creation of new ones, thus providing both citizens and
officials with a real experience of deliberative democracy.
Development of Internet democracy in Estonia
As in the case of traditional democracy, Estonia’s Internet
democracy is characterized by fast institutional development
– Estonia quickly reached the forefront of the race for implementing
information technology and received international
acclaim with various tables reflecting the speed of development
of information society (see also 5.3.1). However, Estonia’s
initiatives in the field of Internet democracy have not
been very productive. The participation portal TOM (Täna
Otsustan Mina – Today I Decide) which enjoyed both international
attention and relatively active participation in its
initial stage has ceased to exist in its original form. One reason
for this may be the fact that, TOM was characteristic of
online representative democracy rather than actual participatory
democracy, since the citizens did not have the final say
in decision making and the suitability of ideas was decided
by the appropriate ministries and officials. Instead of concentrating
on introducing transparency and involvement,
the primary opportunities and benefits of Internet democracy,
Estonia chose an approach focused predominantly
on officials and aimed at gathering as much information as
possible on everyone in order to provide them with suitable
services. Citizens, however, usually lacked the opportunity
to participate in discussions concerning the services, not to
mention more in-depth political debates. Since citizens are
treated in such cases as customers to be provided with services
instead of active participants in the decision-making
process, the type of e-democracy introduced in Estonia can
be considered an Internet customer democracy rather than
an actual participatory democracy (see, for example, Bellamy
& Taylor 1998; Ridell 2002).
Estonia has impressive legislation for regulating the
information society in addition to experience of legal regulation.
However, most of the applicable political documents
are technicist in orientation and do not contain
much information on the subject of participation.
Although some laws, such as the Public Information Act,
do regulate the Internet use of local governments (e.g. the
structure of websites), the local authorities do not follow
these laws and the decision-making process of many local
governments continues to be opaque.
Changes and developments in e-participation
It is important for the development of e-democracy that new
technological means be used to involve people who are not
interested in the traditional forms of democracy as active
participants in social life. In actuality, we have partially
accomplished this goal. The data of the 2008 Mina. Maailm.
Meedia survey indicates (Table 5.3.5.) that in Estonia online
forums, for example, are used more by people who completely
lack interest in politics. Conversely: only 7% of people
with a very high level of general interest in politics say
that they frequently express their opinions in public online
environments. The same trend generally applies to the practice
of blogging. This confirms the tendency revealed in previous
surveys of online participation in Estonia being more
multifaceted than that of countries with long traditions of
civic culture and free development of democracy. Based
on this trend we can even conclude that the contribution
of the Internet to the development of democracy in general
does manifest itself in increasing the activity of people
who remain passive in traditional channels. However, the
fact that the quality of the content of Internet discussions is
often relatively low causes us to regret the tone-setting role
in this communication environment of people who have no
real interest in politics. Forums originally created for the
purpose of political debate and development of democracy
often become additional means for exchanging news and
practical information, rather than environments for initiating
serious discussions and shaping public opinion.
In order to explore the relationship between people’s
general interest in politics and their use of e-services, we
analyzed the connections between Internet use, general
interest in politics, and the activeness index (the latter is
calculated on the basis of involvement in political parties,
campaigns organized by citizens’ associations, and elections)
(see Table 5.3.5.). In general, most of the people who
actively participate in social life today are Internet users. We
can thus see a connection even between people’s frequency
of use of an online banking application and their higher level
of general political activeness. At the same time, people with
a high level of interest in politics participate rather sparsely
in forums, blogs, and commenting environments as well as
online civic initiatives. We can thus say that for people who
are politically active, technology serves primarily as a means
of simplifying their practical daily activities, rather than an
engaging opportunity to influence the administration of the
country or a local government more efficiently.
One of the most important factors in shaping the connection
between general political activeness and e-participation
is age. Older people who are more active politically
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