COMPUESTO A

the budgetary cycle, such as planning, programming, budgeting, appropriations, control, and evaluation of financial resources. E- budgeting refers to the digitalisation of budgetary and accounting procedures. One of the most distinctive features of e-budgeting (and e-government in general, which is a more consistent term and broader approach to e-budgeting) is that it promotes an active role

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for citizens and civil society organisations, also in the context of the social control and verification of public expenditures.

Democratic engagement tools can be also applied to elections and broader voting processes. E-voting is an election system that allows a voter to record his/her secure and secret ballot electronically, without personal presence in the polling station. Electronic votes are stored digitally in a storage medium such as a tape cartridge, diskette, or smart card before being sent to a centralised location where tabulation programmes compile and tabulate results. Electronic voting can reduce election costs and increase civic participation by making the voting process more convenient. But this form of voting requires that governments put more effort into the protection of democracy. It is vital that all new e-tools and forms of civil engagement establish new safeguards for security of such processes, especially in the context of hacking, and potential electoral fraud, etc. Critics of e-voting maintain that without a paper trail recounts are more difficult and electronic ballot manipulation, or even a poorly written programming code, could affect election results. Data protection, voter secrecy, data storage and personal data archives could be under threat, especially in undemocratic countries.

4.6.1

Examples of tools engaging citizens in the digital era

Websites monitoring politics involve evaluation and review of the policy in action, research evidence and views of users, enabling them to go directly to users of services and those at whom the policy is aimed to seek their input. Interesting cases of such websites are ‘TheyWorkForYou’ and ‘Abgeordnetenwatch.de’.

TheyWorkForYou is a parliamentary monitoring website that aims “to make it easier for UK citizens to understand what is going on in Westminster as well as Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the Northern Ireland Assembly” (TheyWorkForYou.com). It also contributes to create accountability for UK politicians by publishing a complete archive of every word spoken in Parliament, along with a voting record and other details for each MP.

New e-tools and forms of civil engagement establish new safeguards for security.

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Abgeordnetenwatch.de is an independent internet platform that offers the possibility to publicly consult parliamentarians of different parliaments (Abgeordnetenwatch.de.) This website enables citizens to get in touch with the deputies of the Bundestag, the German members of the European Parliament and the deputies of the provincial assemblies. It includes a basic entry on every candidate and is free of charge.

Informal agenda-setting tools are informal policy instruments that affect either the content or processes of policy implementation; that is, they alter the way goods and services are delivered to the public or the manner in which such implementation processes take place (STOA Final Report, 2011). Good examples are the petitions system in the House of Representatives in the Netherlands, The Finnish Citizens’ Initiative and even the portal ‘Participedia’.

The House of Representatives in the Netherlands allows citizens to submit a petition to a committee of the House of Representatives or to the speaker of the House. Petitions to the speaker can only be made as part of a national project. Petition submissions may be requested via a letter explaining the purpose and the organisers of the petition. The House decides whether to accept the petition based on this letter. An initiative requires at least 40,000 signatures by registered voters for the House to consider it.

The Finnish Citizens’ Initiative aims to increase participatory democracy on the national level. According to the Constitution, when 50,000 eligible voters express their support for a certain initiative, the Finnish Parliament is obliged to process the initiative (see chapter 11). Although it is a so-called agenda initiative, meaning that it does not lead to a popular vote, it does influence political agenda-setting and is therefore expected to increase political inclusion.

Participedia harnesses the power of collaboration to respond to a recent global phenomenon, which is the rapid development of experiments in new forms of participatory politics and governance around the world. Participedia's research goal is to develop a large article and database. It is an experiment with a new and potentially powerful way to conduct social science research. All of Participedia’s content and data is and will remain free and publicly accessible.

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Formal agenda-setting tools are formal policy instruments, that affect either the content or processes of policy implementation; that is, which alter the way goods and services are delivered to the public or the manner in which such implementation processes take place. Examples of such tools can be the process of writing a new constitution in Iceland2 _{(as the process itself), the Slovenian portal}

‘Predlagam’,the European Citizens` Initiative3_{, the consultation}

platform ‘Futurium’ and the platform ‘Your Voice in Europe’. A new view on democratic e-tools was also tried out through the European Citizens’ Consultation 2009.

Predlagam.vladi.si is a government-initiated e-participation platform with an active interface for petition-type proposals for new policy by citizens that can be commented and voted upon. The proposals can amend current regulations (Predlagam.vladi.si).

Futurium is a consultation platform on EU digital policy making dedicated to European citizens for discussing EU policies, which is a combination of online and offline participation instruments (offline meetings such as workshops, public events, community meetings, etc., also feed the online discussion and vice versa).

Your Voice in Europe is a public consultation platform on EU policy conceived as a policy instrument such as e-consultations via the online platform or a communication instrument with a transformative mission aimed at sensitizing participants about EU policy issues (European Commission 2018).

A similar project was The European Citizens’ Consultation 2009 (ECC09), which was a participative cross-border deliberative

2 _{Iceland's 320,000 citizens all had a say in the writing of their new} constitution. With the help of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, the 25-member council drafting the constitution reached out to Icelanders for recommendations. Everyone registered with their name and address can submit a suggestion which, after being approved by local staff, was passed on to the council and became open for discussion online.

3 _{See chapter 2 by Sophia Russack.}

The European Citizens’ Consultation 2009 was a participative cross-border deliberative experiment to give citizens a platform to propose and discuss ideas with other EU citizens.

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experiment to give citizens across Europe a platform to put forth and discuss ideas with other EU citizens. The aim of the ECC09 was to give EU citizens a voice and allow them input in determining the economic and social future of Europe. The main objectives were to promote interaction between citizens and policy makers, establish citizens as policy advisors, bring the EU closer to its citizens, increase public interest in the EU, expand civil society networks across the EU, and to develop citizen participation as a policy tool for the future.

Non-binding decision-making tools have been adjusted to the internal decision making - or consultation-making activities inside of political parties, civil associations and other civic organisations. A good example is the Pirate Party of Germany, which is making extensive use of new technology to communicate and collaborate on the decision-making process within the party itself on a national scale, especially during consultation of the party`s strategic documents and programmes. Another political party in Europe – Italy’s Five Star Movement – is making similar use of new technology, including election and voting on representatives (e-voting). Finally, the Spanish political party Podemos is making increasingly intensive efforts to use digital tools and make internal party procedures more decentralised and available to all its members.

Cities like Paris are creating digital platforms designed to engage the voting population in decisions on budget allocation of pre-selected projects as proposed by the city government. Furthermore, in Paris, citizens can participate in the distribution of an increasing share of the city's budget by voting on pre-selected projects and submit proposals themselves. (European Parliament, 2014). These are the binding decision making tools.

More popular examples of binding decision-making tools are e-voting procedures. In Switzerland, e-voting includes not only the casting of votes in elections and referendums, but also the giving of 'electronic signatures' for initiatives, referendums and proposals for candidates for membership of the National Council. Estonia allows citizens to vote electronically in local, national and European elections, ten to four days prior to the actual election day in addition to the traditional voting method. The German Green Party (a political party within the European Parliament) used e-voting even

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for the selection procedures of the Spitzenkandidaten in the 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections.

4.7

Cyber security in the age of digital tools in civil