Download or read book Bringing Political Participation Into the 21st Century written by Marcel Claude Ernst and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-08-17 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing Political Participation into the 21st Century argues that political participation has lagged behind general developments since 1989 and proposes remedies for that deficiency. The work consists of five parts: the challenge; the big picture; the grassroots; motivations, doubts and objections; and the conclusion. It also introduces a conceptual framework in graphic form to demonstrate the benefits of the Internet, and how it decreases participation costs. Other themes and case studies include: the case for improving political participation; milestones in political participation to date; regional perspectives, including country studies featuring recent developments in e-participation; participation in municipalities; the role of NGOs; contributions by exceptional individuals; the decline in voter turnout in recent decades and ways to address it; differences in political cultures; differences in participation rates between elections for junior vs. senior levels of government; progress in e-government; and a framework for analysis to provide benchmarks for measuring progress in political participation.