Studies in Digital Politics and Governance Leonhard Hennen · Ira van Keulen Iris Korthagen · Georg Aichholzer Ralf Lindner · Rasmus Øjvind Nielsen Editors European E-Democracy in Practice Studies in Digital Politics and Governance Editors-in-Chief Norbert Kersting, Institute of Political Science, University of Münster, Münster, Germany Karen Mossberger, School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA This book series examines how and why digital technologies matter for democracy – whether in terms of coordinating social movements, elections, e-government, or digital inclusion. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, digital democracy, electronic voting, online participation and civic engagement, and electronic campaigning. The series also covers studies on the impact of information technol- ogies on policy issues such as smart cities and the applications of information technologies in a diverse range of areas, such as public health, education, and cybersecurity. Studies in Digital Politics and Governance (DPG) welcomes monographs and edited volumes from a variety of disciplines and approaches, such as political science, public administration and computational sciences, which are accessible to academics, decision-makers and practitioners working at governmental and non-governmental institutions. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/16070 Leonhard Hennen • Ira van Keulen • Iris Korthagen • Georg Aichholzer • Ralf Lindner • Rasmus Øjvind Nielsen Editors European E-Democracy in Practice Editors Leonhard Hennen Ira van Keulen Institute of Technology Assessment Rathenau Instituut and Systems Analysis The Hague, The Netherlands Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Karlsruhe, Germany Iris Korthagen Georg Aichholzer Netherlands Court of Audit Institute of Technology Assessment The Hague, The Netherlands Austrian Academy of Sciences Vienna, Austria Ralf Lindner Rasmus Øjvind Nielsen Fraunhofer Institute for Systems The Danish Board of Technology Foundation and Innovation Research Hvidovre, Denmark Karlsruhe, Germany ISSN 2524-3926 ISSN 2524-3934 (electronic) Studies in Digital Politics and Governance ISBN 978-3-030-27183-1 ISBN 978-3-030-27184-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27184-8 This book is an open access publication. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Acknowledgements This book had its origins in a research project commissioned and funded by the European Parliament’s Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA). We would like to thank the STOA Panel, the STOA Bureau and the STOA Secretariat for initiating and accompanying the underlying research project. Our thanks also go to Gianluca Quaglio from the STOA Secretariat and to Bruno Kaufmann and Robert Krimmer for their valuable comments and recommendations. Finally, we would like to thank Julie Cook for a thorough English language check of the manuscript. v Contents 1 Introduction .......................................... 1 Leonhard Hennen, Iris Korthagen, Ira van Keulen, Georg Aichholzer, Ralf Lindner, and Rasmus Ø. Nielsen Part I The State of Scholarly Discussions 2 E-Democracy: Conceptual Foundations and Recent Trends ...... 11 Ralf Lindner and Georg Aichholzer 3 E-Democracy and the European Public Sphere ................ 47 Leonhard Hennen 4 Experience with Digital Tools in Different Types of e-Participation ....................................... 93 Georg Aichholzer and Gloria Rose Part II Case Studies 5 Introduction to the Case Study Research .................... 143 Ira van Keulen and Iris Korthagen 6 Parliamentary Monitoring ................................ 151 Iris Korthagen and Hade Dorst 7 Informal Agenda Setting ................................. 163 Ira van Keulen and Iris Korthagen 8 Formal Agenda Setting (National and Local Level) ............. 177 Iris Korthagen, Gloria Rose, Georg Aichholzer, and Ira van Keulen 9 Formal Agenda-Setting (European Level) .................... 209 Gloria Rose, Ira van Keulen, and Georg Aichholzer vii viii Contents 10 Non-binding Decision-Making ............................. 237 Iris Korthagen, Casper Freundlich Larsen, and Rasmus Ø. Nielsen 11 Binding Decision-Making ................................ 273 Kerstin Goos and Iris Korthagen Part III Conclusions 12 Assessing Tools for E-Democracy: Comparative Analysis of the Case Studies ..................................... 295 Iris Korthagen and Ira van Keulen 13 Options for Improving e-Participation at the EU Level .......... 329 Rasmus Ø. Nielsen, Leonhard Hennen, Iris Korthagen, Georg Aichholzer, and Ralf Lindner About the Editors and Authors Georg Aichholzer is a senior researcher, sociologist and freelance collaborator of the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA), Austrian Academy of Sciences. He has ample research and teaching experience in social studies of technology and technology assessment, especially on electronic governance, electronic democracy, digital change and the future of work. Hade Dorst is a PhD candidate at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Devel- opment at Utrecht University and is involved in the Horizon2020 project ‘Naturvation’ on the governance and innovation of urban nature-based solutions. Previously, she worked as a researcher at the Rathenau Institute on themes such as urban innovation and smart cities, including digital democracy. Casper Freundlich Larsen studied political science and government at Aarhus University. He worked as project assistant at the Danish Board of Technology Foundation in 2016. He is currently employed as academic officer at the Danish Agency for Digitisation. Kerstin Goos studied communication science with a focus on sociology and social research at the University of Hohenheim (Stuttgart) and at the Aarhus University in Denmark. Kerstin Goos has participated in several European research projects, especially in the field of innovation, responsible research and innovation and public participation. After 6 years as a researcher at the Competence Center Emerging Technologies at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, she is currently responsible for the implementation of EU projects in the field of urban innovation and cross-sectoral collaboration and digitization at the non-profit high- tech business network CyberForum e.V. in Karlsruhe. Leonhard Hennen has a PhD in sociology. He was project manager at the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Parliament, which is run by the Institute of Technology Assessment, Research Centre Karlsruhe, Germany. He was responsible ix x About the Editors and Authors for projects on genetic testing, technology controversies, sustainable development and research policy, neuro-science and society, E-democracy and others. He partic- ipated in several European projects on concepts and methods of technology assess- ment. Since 2006, he has been coordinator of the European Technology Assessment Group (ETAG; www.itas.fzk.de/etag). ETAG is set up by a group of European Scientific Institutes active in the field of technology assessments, which carry out TA studies on behalf of the European Parliament. Ira van Keulen is since 2009 senior researcher and parliamentary liaison at the Rathenau Instituut. She specializes in digital democracy and evidence-informed politics and has been involved before in projects on converging technologies and human enhancement. Ira studied sociology at the University of Groningen and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. In her work, she has always focused on the interaction between technology and society. As a liaison for the entire institute, Ira is responsible for ensuring that the work of the Rathenau Institute is plugged at the right time, with the right parliamentarians, at the Dutch House of Representatives and