Estonian Human Development Report

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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 | 114
lack the experience of expressing themselves online, while active bloggers and young people making their opinions public in forums (see also subchapter 5.4) regrettably exhibit a low level of general interest in politics. Estonia’s civic culture and grassroots initiatives have also been exploring options for using the Internet to accomplish their objectives. Several different campaigns have been organized recently both offline and online, indicating an increase in the significance of the third sector and civic involvement. For example, signatures have been collected both in support of and against the construction of a monument in memory of the Estonian War of Independence, the garbage cleaning campaign Teeme ära has been organized as a civic initiative, and the unity and feeling of solidarity of the nation were also reinforced by Märkamisaeg, an event celebrating the anniversary of the Estonian night song festivals. Some of these initiatives were conceived online, while in the case of others, information and communication technologies were widely used to guarantee their success. This indicates that the spheres of Internet use and civic initiative are increasingly closely connected in Estonia. Yet it is important to distinguish the manifestations of spontaneous democracy from institutional participatory democracy. There have been some developments in the latter category, References 1. Bellamy, C. and Taylor, J. A. (1998). Governing in the Information Age. Buckingham: Open University Press. 2. Emor (2008) Eestis on 6–74-aastasi internetikasutajaid 806 000.[http://www.emor.ee/arhiiv.html?id=1951] 3. Eurostat (2008) Information Society statistics. Data tables. [http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/port a l / p a g e ? _ p a g e i d =19 9 6 , 4 532 373 4 & _ d a d = p o r t a l & _ s c h e m a = P O R T A L & s c r e e n = w e l c o m e r e f & o p e n = / &product=EU_MASTER_information_society&depth=2] 4. ITU (2007a) Digital Opportunity Index [http://www.itu.int/ ITU-D/ict/doi/index.html] 5. ITU (2007b) World Information Society Report: Beyond WSIS. [http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/publications/worldinformationsociety/2007/WISR07_full-free.pdf] 6. Praust, V. (1998) Infoühiskond ja selle teetähised. [http://www. riso.ee/et/pub/1998it/12.htm] however. One example is the Internet environment Osale.ee launched by the State Chancellery, which is a development based on the model of the TOM participation portal and features a rather lively discussion under the topic “Universal rights in the e-state” (National Audit Office 2008) created by the National Audit Office. A new step towards Estonia becoming an e-society is the e-State Charter. Universal Rights in the e-State – a document prepared on the basis of the comments collected from the thread started and named by the National Audit Office. Proceeding from different laws, this charter explains in simple terms the rights of an individual in relation to the opportunities offered by the Internet both for the provision of public services and the involvement of citizens. In addition to regulating the electronic transaction of affairs and services, it would be important to increase the amount of attention devoted to the quality of information issued by various public institutions. The all-in-one model of service provision currently represented by the portal eesti.ee is a sensible approach. It is important for this multi-purpose portal to provide citizens with clearly worded information presented in a short format on the activities and roles of various public institutions, allowing them to better understand the state as a whole, shape their opinions, and make choices. 7. Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, P., Vihalemm, P., Viia, A. (2007) Digital Opportunities as a Development Factor. Heidmets, M. (ed.). Human Development Report 2006 (95–105). Tallinn: Public Understanding Foundation. 8. Ridell, S. (2002) The Web as a Space for Local Agency. Communications, 27(2), 147–169. 9. National Audit Office (2008) Universal Rights in the e-State. e- State Charter. [http://www.riigikontroll.ee/] 10. Riso (2008) Interneti kasutamise sagedus 2001-2008. [http://www.riso. ee/et/files/eSeire_2008_I_Interneti_kasutamise%20sagedus.pdf] 11. World Economic Forum (2008a) The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009. [http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/ gcp/Global%20Competitiveness%20Report/index.htm] 12. World Economic Forum (2008b) The Global Information Technology Report 2007-2008. [http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/ Global%20Information%20Technology%20Report/index.htm] 5.4. Children and young people in the consumer and information society The opportunities and risks of the consumer and information society for children and young people A generalized and somewhat simplified set of opinions by researchers on the effects of the consumer society and information society on children can be placed on an axis where critics and child protectionists are located at one end and optimists at the other. The former tend to construct the meaning of childhood through the keywords of innocence and vulnerability, claiming that children need special protection from the onslaught of the consumer and information society. Optimists, on the other hand, believe that children develop a “natural competence” in using the opportunities provided by the surrounding information and consumer society, thus forming a sufficiently capable and active target group both as the audience for and consumers of media (cf. Buckingham 2000). The first opinion dominates the public discourse (including most of the media and academia), while the other is popular in marketing circles and certain media outlets. Due to this, the opportunities and risks involved with the media use of children and youth have become one of the central research topics in the new media environment. The line between opportunities and risks is occasionally blurry and depends on one’s point of view and values. While children 115 |
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Estonian Human Development Report
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Estonian Human Development Report T
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4.2. Ethnic differentiations in sat
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Preface This year, the Estonian Hum
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CHAPTER 1 Estonian Human Developmen
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Figure 1.1.3. Life expectancy in co
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Figure 1.2.2. Life expectancy at bi
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to reality. The greatest inaccuracy
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Figure 1.2.9. Internal migration ev
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12. Marksoo, A. 1992. “Dynamics o
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Table 1.3.1. PISA 2006 study result
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Table 1.3.2. Number of students in
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1.4. The gross domestic product and
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Figure 1.4.3. Estonian GDP (right a
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1.5. Changes in the Estonian Human
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2.2. Health of Estonian residents i
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Table 2.2.4. Differences in life ex
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Figure 2.4.1. Healthy life years of
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Figure 2.4.4. Various accidents, tr
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2.5. Lifestyle and behaviour as a s
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Figure 2.5.5. Smoking in Estonia in
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Figure 2.6.1. Overview of the compo
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Table 2.6.2. Use of specialized med
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dren. The majority of services are
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Figure 2.8.2. How much a health dis
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2.10. Policy recommendations aimed
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CHAPTER 3 Quality of life and life
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Table 3.2.1. Characteristics of liv
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Table 3.2.4. An assessment of the e
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Figure 3.2.4. Difference in the job
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Table 3.2.6. Agreement with stateme
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Page 86 and 87: Table 4.2.1. Factors forming genera
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Page 102 and 103: mote equal opportunities. At the (e
Page 104 and 105: CHAPTER 5 Quality of life in a cons
Page 106 and 107: Figure 5.2.1. GDP and AIC per capit
Page 108 and 109: Figure 5.2.3. Distribution of consu
Page 110 and 111: Figure 5.2.4. Indexes of environmen
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Page 122 and 123: Figure 5.4.6. Time spent on the con
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Page 128 and 129: Table 6.2.1. Objective and subjecti
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Page 134 and 135: Figure 6.3.1. GDP, government secto
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Page 154 and 155: have been underfinanced or are not
Page 156 and 157: Table 7.1. Factors that favour and
Page 158 and 159: Table 7.2. Potential economic devel
Page 160 and 161: Authors Chapter 1 Ene-Margit Tiit,
Page 162 and 163: Margit Keller (PhD) is a Senior Res
Page 164 and 165: Special prizes Estonian Human Devel
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Estonian Human Development Report H
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Estonian Human Development Report H
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Honorable mentions Estonian Human D
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Estonian Human Development Report P
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Estonian Human Development Report A
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