Digital citizenship as multiple political participation? : predictors of digital political participation in Slovenia

Hafner-Fink, Mitja (author), Oblak Črnič, Tanja (author)

A significant decreasing trend in political participation could be observed in so-called Western democracies in the last decades of the 20th century. In this framework, researchers largely agree on the key factors of participation: from generational differences and socio-economic status through civic values to civic competencies. The emergence and expansion of the Internet have brought new opportunities to expand political participation practices and to include in these practices certain groups which have so far been less active. By analysing the presence of various forms of participation via the Internet in Slovenia, we assess a thesis on the (possible) expansion of space for political participation and search for answer(s) to research questions about the relationship between traditional forms of political participation in general and digital forms of participation: a) are online forms merely combining with other traditional forms of participation; or b) are they emerging as a new type of political participation? We also investigate whether digital participation does indeed involve new groups of people and who are potential 'digital citizens'. In the analysis, we use the latest data from the Slovenian Public Opinion Survey 2013, which includes both information on the forms of political participation generally and information on digital-specific forms of participation.

• Language: English
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2014
• Number of pages: Str. 1284-1303, 1409
• Numbering: Letn. 51, št. 6
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-85251
• UDC: 323.21:004.738.5
• ISSN on article: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 534527
• Publication date in RUL: 20.09.2016

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Teorija in praksa : revija za družbena vprašanja
• Shortened title: Teor. praksa
• Publisher: Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 763652

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

V družbah t. i. zahodne demokracije se je v zadnjih desetletjih 20. stoletja kazal značilen trend upadanja politične participacije. V tem okviru so raziskovalci dokaj enotni glede dejavnikov participacije: od generacijske pripadnosti in socio-ekonomskega položaja preko državljanskih vrednot do državljanskih kompetenc. S pojavom interneta so se pojavile nove možnosti za širitev prostora politične participacije in vključevanje nekaterih skupin, ki so bile doslej manj aktivne. Z analizo razširjenosti različnih oblik participacije prek interneta v Sloveniji preverjamo tezo o širjenju prostora politične participacije in odgovarjamo na vprašanje o razmerju med tradicionalnimi oblikami politične participacije nasploh ter novimi digitalnimi oblikami participacije: a) ali se digitalne oblike le kombinirajo z drugimi bolj tradicionalnimi oblikami ali b) se s pojavom digitalnih oblik participacije razvija tudi nov tip (stil) politične participacije? Sprašujemo se, ali digitalna participacija res vključuje nove skupine ljudi. V analizi uporabljamo najnovejše podatke iz raziskave Slovensko javno mnenje 2013, ki vključuje tako informacije o (tradicionalnih) oblikah politične participacije nasploh kot o digitalnih oblikah participacije.

• Keywords: politična participacija, digitalni državljani, dejavniki participacije, aktivno državljanstvo