E-administration as a model of weak digital democracy

Abstract

This paper is part of a set of studies aimed at analysing the relationship between the Digital Divide and political practices online. Specifically, this paper analyses the relationship between technological inequalities in Spain and a particular type of digital political practice: e-administration. This political practice has become one of the most widely supported and advocated forms of digital democracy among institutions, academia and society. This paper provides a relatively new angle on this issue. Rather than looking at e-administration from a legal perspective or from the point of view of the political possibilities it offers, we analyse the social make-up of its users. This analysis will allow us to bring attention to the negative effects of the Digital Divide on this online political practice. The data used for this paper are from the studies carried out by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) in its survey on Information and Communication Technologies equipment and use in households, from 2003 to 2009.