E-participación en el Senado chileno: ¿aplicaciones deliberativas?

Abstract

The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have brought several promises on participation and a closer relationship between authorities and citizens. In Chile, the Senate has developed two programs (Virtual Senator and Chat of the senators) which allow citizens to be in touch with senators and present them their points of view on topics discussed in the legislative agenda. This paper studies how these programs let citizens engage both on public affairs and legislative-agenda debates. Specifically, it studies how these programs have been worked and assesses whether they have been or not successful in accomplishing the deliberation normative goals that inspire the academic debates on ICT and politics.