TLDR version: Are there countries that effectively use technology and digital communications to both facilitate the democratic process and more efficiently deliver governmental services?
As an American, it seems like there’s often a technological disconnect between our lives as participants of the 21st century and our lives as citizens of a democracy.
I mean this in two particular ways:
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We seem to be pretty bad at using technology to facilitate the democratic process. E-voting has its risks (such as the Bush-era Diebold controversies and California’s later investigations), but there are still nonetheless countries that seem to have worked around the potential pitfalls and implemented online voting systems or more efficient offline vote counting. Beyond just voting, however, our entire democratic superstructure seems antiquated, from the whole idea of the electoral college to the lack of proportional representation in many levels of government. Even the way we advertise our candidates is ancient: mailing out paper packets with a few paragraphs of propaganda, compared to the way we rate movies, video games, apps, restaurants, businesses, schools, or seemingly everything in our lives. Or for states that practice direct democracy, why isn’t there a simple system for online discussions of initiatives, ratings and background information of sponsors, etc.? Stuff like that seems to fall to small civically-minded non-profit watchdogs. Why, for such a information-hungry populace, do we not (as a country) provide similar data-driven analyses for our politicians and bureaucratic entities? Why isn’t there an easier way to communicate with bureaucracies en masse, sort of like the White House petitions but with actual teeth?
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Government services seem out of touch with the technological needs of the populace. Some countries have essentially legalized/subsidized digital piracy, for example. Or the whole net neutrality brouhaha. Or the continually sub-par deployment of broadband infrastructure. Or cell phone consumer protections. Why does the DMV still have so many lines and require in-person visits for something as stupid as picking up a license plate? Why is your health record kept in manila folders in eight different clinics instead of some sort of centralized database? It took how long to allow Kindles while a plane is taking off?
So anyway, the point isn’t to bash American ludditism per se; I’m more interested in whether there are countries that do these things better? Are their citizens happier for these services? Did the digital divide increase their democratic divides? I guess, in an overall broad sense, can you actually throw technology at democracy and make it better in some way?