European Journal of ePractice

Since the 1990s, public institutions have been increasingly reaching into democracy's toolbox for new tools with which to better engage citizens in politics. Applied uses of new information communication technologies (ICTs), namely the Internet, are expanding the range of instruments within the toolbox. E-consultations are emerging as a popular e-participation practice for advancing civic engagement in public policy making.

This paper critically evaluates how and to what effect political institutions employ e-consultations to bring about deliberative and participatory capital. Existing evidence suggests that though e-consultations provide new opportunities for the formation of new interactive spaces between citizens and political actors and promote cost effectiveness, their impact on the quality of deliberation and policies, however, has been less conclusive (Margolis and Resnick 2000; Coleman and Gøtze 2001). Observers note that outcomes of e-consultation initiatives have been poorly and arbitrarily integrated in the respective policies they intended to inform. Their inclusion has remained contingent on the political will and discretion of the political actors.

In this context we question what new participatory benefits e-consultations do in fact offer or whether they serve as facades for political correctness only in a new space?