E-participation in Local Government

E-government, once the flavour of the month for New Labour politicians, has been slipping down the scale of political priorities in recent months as the government struggles with the attempt to reform its core public services. This does not augur well for attempts to get all public services online by 2005 and it augurs even less well for e-democracy, which has already become overshadowed and marginalised by policies dealing with the challenge of electronic service delivery.

This book looks at new evidence of the scale and practice of current e-democracy in Local Authorities in England and Wales. It presents some Good Practice Guidelines and a new strategic rationale for local and national government to take e-democracy policy more seriously.