Legal Mechanisms of E-democracy for Harmonization and coordination of Relations Between Citizens, organizations and the State

Abstract

The article dwells upon the issues of application of modern information and communication technologies for development and streamlining of the relations between citizens, government and organizations. Based on the assertion that the Internet plays an important role in strengthening representative democracy, as it allows introducing advisory elements into the democratic system, the author analyzes a number of international legal instruments of the Council of Europe adopted in recent years in the field of e-democracy, and gives practical examples of e-government and e-democracy performance in Russia and the CIS countries. The author draws attention to the fact that state projects enjoy considerably less popularity than non-profit projects for the development of public initiatives. Based on the results of research conducted on the basis of the Center for Development of E-democracy Mechanisms at the Faculty of Law (RANEPA), the author reveals the problems of law enforcement and the numerous terminological conflicts associated with the field of information and communication technologies and other problems of the development of e-democracy in Russia. In conclusion, the author advances a number of proposals for systematization of the conceptual apparatus and for the harmonization of legislation in the sphere of e-democracy, which should promote its further development.