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25 March 1997 Doc. 7772
ADOC7772
REPORT1
on the impact of the new communication
and information technologies on democracy
(Rapporteur: Mr Jean-Pierre MASSERET,
France, Socialist Group)
_____
Summary
The NCITs2 are of major importance for the future of our societies. Organised in worldwide networks and now combining communication, information, sound and image technologies, they point the way to a new civilisation. All aspects of daily life are affected: work, economic exchanges, modes of production, culture, information, education, interpersonal relationships, mediation systems and relations in the private and public spheres.
As always when confronted with a technological innovation, people can make good or bad use of it. They can use it to promote democracy, freedom, responsibility and much-needed solidarity or, conversely, to dominate and exploit. This issue is naturally of paramount concern to the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly. Council committees have already started discussing it. The Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations, concerned at the lack of trust that frequently appears to separate citizens from their elected representatives, wants the NCITs to serve the purposes of day-to-day democracy.
Democracy cannot be sliced up into separate parts, so legal, ethical, economic, social and political issues are closely intertwined in any discussion of the NCITs. It is for our Assembly and its committees to clarify the new situations engendered by these technologies and propose democratic responses to them. What is at stake is a new democratic civilisation for Europe. Our work must strike a balance between the need to develop the essential technologies, which are a direct product of human invention, and the obligation to use them for the benefit of humankind.
Knowing that the NCITs are only instruments, politicians have a clear duty to meet the public's obvious demands in this area. The response they must provide with the greatest urgency concerns the fair and useful sharing out of the wealth created to supply work, a decent income, housing, dignity and a practical framework for human rights principles. A debate is essential because technological developments do not dictate a standard viewpoint.
I. Draft resolution
1. In view of the technical, political and cultural changes currently underway, the Assembly feels it should help to identify the opportunities opened up by the new communication and information technologies (NCITs) for meeting the needs of our societies more fully. The developments and applications of the NCITs should afford real social benefit. They must serve the promotion of freedoms, foster the self-fulfilment of citizens and their more effective participation in public affairs, stimulate economic development and employment, facilitate social and cultural progress and advance education and the acquisition of knowledge. They must be harnessed to the interests of man, social progress, democracy and peace.
2. In this context, the Assembly considers it essential:
i. to find ways of averting the following risks: a reduction in political choice, the manipulation of consciences, the commercialisation and fragmentation of political messages, a surfeit of opinion polls, the marginalisation of parliamentary procedures, social discrimination, the monitoring of citizens and the danger of an instantaneous but devalued form of democracy;
ii. to take account of the new prospects offered by the NCITs for developing interactivity as a remedy for the passiveness characterising those who merely observe events. The NCITs provide an opportunity to create a new type of two-way communication and develop a new concept, "electronic citizenship";
iii. to decide what belongs in the public sphere and what should be subjected to market forces.
3. Consequently, the Assembly calls upon national parliaments to promote a policy that takes account of the following requirements:
i. at the legal level
a. recognising and identifying the complexity of the new situations;
b. ensuring that the existing law suffices to control these new situations;
c. modifying current legislation or proposing new, more appropriate legislation, as required;
d. avoiding the introduction of complex and unworkable rules which would hamper the evolution and development of the NCITs necessary for the common good. Wherever it is necessary to regulate, the proportionality principle must be applied so as to strike a proper balance between the measures taken and the objectives pursued.
ii. at the political level
a. organising training in the NCITs from the earliest age in the public and private education system. The necessary funds should be made available to ensure that the public sector has all the appropriate resources. This is a prerequisite of equal opportunity for all citizens, regardless of their social status;
b. providing universally accessible and affordable computer facilities that cover all the possibilities offered by national and international networks;
c. endowing national parliaments and decentralised authorities with the equipment needed for developing consultations between elected representatives and citizens, thereby ensuring increased participation by the latter in political decision-making;
d. promoting appropriate national legislative measures so as to set a legal framework for the preservation of private data, the protection of young people and respect for ethical rules and human rights;
4. The Assembly also requests national parliaments to inform it annually of any steps taken or being prepared in connection with the various situations created by the NCITs, so that they may be presented and discussed at interparliamentary conferences organised by the Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations.
II. Draft order
1. Having regard to the recommendations made to national parliaments in Resolution .... (1997) and the need to harmonise European and national policies, the Assembly considers it necessary to help to establish common rules that are flexible enough to permit the development of the NCITs as well as sufficiently strict to foster democratic use of the NCITs, it being understood that this effort will draw on existing national legislation and, where necessary, the work of the European Union.
2. The Assembly invites the committees concerned to monitor the development of the NCITs with a view to organising discussions thereon proposing any measures deemed necessary.
3. The competent committees may now take steps to:
i. draw up a European code of electronic commerce;
ii. distinguish between the law on information and the law on the means to convey it.
III. Explanatory memorandum
by Mr Masseret
TABLE OF CONTENT Page
INTRODUCTION 7
A FIRST REPORT: CRITICAL ANALYSIS 9
CHAPTER 1: Putting NCITs into perspective 12
A. Technical overview 12
B. The challenge to society 13
1. Development and financing 15
2. NCITs: access to the networks 16
3. NCITs and education 17
4. NCITs and culture 17
5. NCITs and employment 18
6. NCITs and ethics 19
CHAPTER 2: Legal issues 19
CHAPTER 3: NCITs and the functioning of representative democracy 22
1. Confidence in democracy 23
2. Confidence in the right of vote 23
3. Confidence in the principle of representation 24
4. Confidence in the political function 24
5. What has changed in society 25
a) The risks 25
b) Useful perspectives 28
CHAPTER 4: Action required 29
1. Recommendations to parliaments 29
2. Recommendations to our Assembly 30
Introduction
1. For some years the Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations of the Council of Europe Assembly has been interested in the real and everyday operation of Democracy.
2. Ever since its creation the Parliamentary Assembly has been playing a useful role for promoting the democratic model: constitution, free and regular elections, political pluralism, separation of powers, fundamental freedoms, human rights, protection of minorities, organisation of justice, penal system, prison system, the rule of law, etc. The Council of Europe has thus promoted the principles of representative democracy.
3. A twofold observation is necessary however: while the overwhelming majority of our fellow citizens believe in democracy as a principle and a method of government, it has to be admitted that everyday democracy has its weaknesses.
4. The weaknesses of democracy are reflected in its inadequacies and difficulties.
5. The inadequacies concern the functioning of democratic institutions, which are closely examined by our Committees on Political Affairs and Legal Affairs. The Council of Europe's monitoring is a valuable and effective instrument.
6. The difficulties are concerned with everyday life. They do not come directly before our Assembly, nor before our committees, but it is these difficulties that give rise to the greatest worry and the greatest disappointment. They concern unemployment, poverty, exclusion, wretchedness, precarious situations, housing matters, inequalities, the abuses connected with nationalist and ethnic conflicts.
7. The combination and accumulation of these inadequacies and difficulties leads to the citizens' loss of confidence in the political function, widening the gap between the reality lived in our towns and villages and the hopes engendered by electoral promises.
8. There are differing interpretations of these difficulties, in particular those concerned with everyday life. Analyses and ideological stances oppose those who believe that deregulation and the liberal management of the market economy is the only possible way, and those who are convinced that the public authorities, empowered by the citizens in the general interest, have the duty to act and to set the framework rules within which the market economy must work.
9. Be this as it may, and without going into the debate on fundamentals which is considered at the end of the report, the obvious divergence between citizens and their elected representatives at national level weakens democracy.
10. The crisis of confidence is illustrated by factors of differing degrees of seriousness ranging from falling participation in elections, the fragmentation of parties and sometimes their loss of credibility, to nationalist ideas, ethnic conflict and descents into totalitarianism or fascism.
11. It is comforting to see the new commitment of our fellow citizens to NGOs and associations. Even though the social purpose of these organisations is to pursue particular goals, they contribute to greater participation of the citizen in the life of the community. NGOs have become key elements of political democracy.
12. We must be aware of the difficulties that distance our fellow citizens from representative democracy.
13. It therefore appeared to the Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations that what should be analysed with a view to improvement was the very functioning of representative democracy. This necessary effort has to reconcile the new facts of modern society with citizens' demands to be more closely involved in public affairs.
14. The field of politics never ceases to expand, but political man is less and less able to master and control it. The nation state, the traditional place for political action, is becoming less important with the removal of frontiers and the organisation of the global market. A plethora of powers interact and compete with one another: political power, financial power, economic power, technocratic power, to say nothing of the power of the media. All this under the spotlight and the influence of the new communication and information technologies.
15. We are experiencing a true revolution in communications, a worldwide revolution said to be comparable with the those brought by printing, the telephone and television all rolled into one. These new technologies are bringing profound changes in our society and are likely to lead to a new post-industrial civilisation. This observation obviously raises many problems.
16. The Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations embarked on an analysis, with some trepidation given the diversity of the issues involved and the constantly changing technological scene, in particular through the huge investments being made in such fields as fibre optics, satellites, mobile radio links, etc.
17. The committee's first concern was thus to assess, from the standpoint of the principles and values of democracy, the evolution of technologies which appear to have no limits to their development.
18. Thinking in terms of democracy is to think in terms of values. The new civilisation brought about by the new communication and information technologies cannot ignore this issue.
19. Between the right to do everything and the right to do nothing there is an area of responsibility and freedom which needs to be defined and delimited.
20. The committee first considered the advantages that the new technologies present for the functioning of our societies, which are going to change from a pyramid structure in which the citizen tends to be a mere consumer of information to a network structure in which the accent will be on the individual.
21. The committee has no wish to stir up a quarrel between ancients and moderns: it is simply taking note of the given facts of a new period of history and suggesting that it would be wrong to accept in advance that thought will be defeated by the ineluctable progress of the new communication and information technologies. It offers for consideration some conceptual tools and concrete measures in response to the work already done by philosophers, sociologists, researchers, academics and jurists, who have taken the measure of the initial consequences of the post-industrial age.
22. We have now entered a period of transition.
23. The industrial phase was characterised by a massification movement: the formation of the conurbation and the megalopolis, concentration of workers in big industrial complexes, constitution of mass organisations (unions, political parties). Social reality produced philosophical analyses, ideological stances and political attitudes. This phase gave birth in Europe to a globalising and sometimes even totalitarian approach on the part of society. In this period, still in Europe, the role of the State was legitimised as an instrument for the general interest, with the aim of protecting and promoting the individual, and the citizen. It is only natural that this phase should have produced on our continent ambitions organised around projects with a strong collective content, each member benefitting, personally, from the contribution of all.
24. A transformation characterised by demassification is commencing, which might appear paradoxical at a time of increasing globalisation of the economy, trade and relations. The new landscape has many features, including individualisation of behaviours, pressing of claims, relations, changes in working relations, development of personalised information, distance buying and selling, distance payment, individualisation of commercial and political marketing, direct communications between the citizens of the world. This concerns the whole of society. The landscape is evolving rapidly. The cultural, ideological and political consequences for the most part still have to be explained to our fellow citizens.
25. The transition from the massification phase to demassification is at the crux of the present political crisis. Our European societies, used to taking general situations into account by means of laws or regulatory arrangements are not equipped for dealing with the multiplicity and diversity of personalised claims. Some commentators see here progress towards individual fulfilment, others a risk of regression. Our responsibility is to act so that the good outweighs the bad.
A first report: critical analysis
26. This is why, in accordance with its mandate, the committee thought it useful to submit an initial report in January 1996. This initial report listed, without claiming to be exhaustive, a whole series of concerns which went beyond the strict competence of the committee. These concerns were voiced by various experts brought together by the committee at a seminar held in Paris in March 1995.
27. These concerns have since been taken up by expert studies commissioned by the Council of Europe (study for the Steering Committee on the Mass Media). The common factor in all the analyses or reflections is that they bring out the need to better serve or respect the democratic functioning of our societies. Democracy being a whole, the committee wanted to take a holistic approach, as it stated in the initial report, which was intended to be the starting point for an examination in greater depth.
28. Some commentators thought that this initial report placed too much emphasis on the fears that might be associated with the implementation of the new communication society, giving the impression that the main thing was to oppose technological change. This was of course not the aim or purpose of the Rapporteur or of the committee.
29. Before recalling the analyses carried out by several of our committees which are all very soon going to have to study how they will be affected by the implications of the new communication and information technologies for the Council of Europe's tasks, it is worthwhile briefly recalling the various points raised in the initial report.
30. The draft resolution suggested that a regulatory framework should be established at European level to define the rules of the game for the different aspects of the new communication and information technologies: technical, economic, social, cultural and political. This regulatory approach is no doubt premature, because it does not enjoy the unanimous support of the committees. However, the concerns expressed remain valid, and identifying these concerns in no way signifies opposition to technological change.
31. There should be unanimity on the basic principle set out in the report. This principle concerns the responsibility of elected representatives to set democratic, cultural, social and economic goals for these NCITs in order to promote citizenship and protect individual rights. It is a matter of guaranteeing the new freedom which scientific and technological advances have brought without undermining the fundamental freedoms and without recourse to censorship or inapplicable regulations.
32. This principle led to a series of suggestions, briefly recalled here with no ranking implied:
- to take measures to prevent the formation of monopolies in the creation or operation of communications networks;
- to draw up a code of conduct for manufacturers, operators and users;
- to ensure that the new technologies do not contribute to exclusion, to the detriment of the most disadvantaged states and citizens or of ethnic and cultural minorities;
- to develop a major education and training effort in each country to enable the citizens to use the networks and to adopt the necessary critical approach to any information;
- to guarantee the transparency of information sources;
- to ensure respect for the dignity of the person and the confidentiality of data.
33. On all these points the Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations is convinced that there will be a unanimity of principle in the Assembly. However, a joint effort will be necessary to determine the ways and means by which these objectives can be achieved in practice.
34. Several committees have expressed opinions on the initial report. The Committee on Culture raised a list of issues many of which were of an economic or legal nature. It considered that the subject of "electronic democracy" was not sufficiently dealt with.
For the Committee on Economic Affairs the telecommunications networks should be free of any shackles. It considers that this freedom is a "sine qua non" for economic progress, prosperity and job creation, and that any attempt at regulation might have fatal consequences for any states trying it.
The Committee on Legal Affairs very usefully dealt with various subjects touched upon in the report by the Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations. Its concerns are in fact very close and complementary to those expressed in the initial report.
The Committee on Science and Technology indicated with great perspicacity and pertinence the subjects within its field which warranted particular attention.
35. Apart from the analysis by the Committee on Economic Affairs, which advocates complete laissez faire, there are many points of agreement between the opinions of the other committees and the very generalised approach of the initial report by the Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations.
36. The intention of the Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations was to launch a topic by making points raised by the Paris seminar available to the Assembly, knowing that this was just a first stage.
37. It must be said that the Paris seminar showed that there were close links between the NCITs and a whole range of problems.
38. The opinion of the Committee on Culture and Education is revealing in this respect, because many of its observations concern not so much the fields covered by its terms of reference as those of economics and law.
39. Regarding the observations by the Committee on Economic Affairs, it appears neither in accordance with the ideals, nor in accordance with the aims of the basic texts of the Council of Europe to make the absence of rules an ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLE of the exercise of freedoms. The protection of existing rights and freedoms, like the promotion of new rights, requires a defined area within which these freedoms can be exercised responsibly. Montesquieu taught us that rules are there to protect the weakest and that the unconditional exercise of a freedom can lead to abuses of power or to positions incompatible with the freedom of others.
40. This report therefore again adopts the principle of the holistic approach, because the truth is that all aspects of the subject concern the democratic future of our societies. It is thus not a matter of encroaching on the preserves of other committees or trying to prevent them from dealing with this broad subject. Neither is it an expression of an existential problem. It is simply a matter of launching the debate, as the rest of this report will show.
41. If our Assembly were to approach the subject of the future of representative democracy and its necessary changes from the narrow standpoint of the functional attributions of its committees, it would be better to close the debate right now and leave the required effort and responsibility in the hands of G7 and the European Union.
42. The essential thing is that the NCITs i.e. all the new possibilities for inter-personal exchanges, should be in the service of democracy.
43. The four chapters which follow in fact correspond to the responsibilities of the committees which have expressed their opinions on the initial report. The arguments developed are by no means exhaustive, but have the modest ambition to open the field to reflection and discussion. The period we are entering is not a closed moment of history, it is in fact quite the opposite. Nothing, except for principles, can be definitive. Everything is evolving, everything is mobile, and there is no denying that technology is evolving much faster than people's attitudes and capacity to adapt.
44. The first chapter is puts new communication and information technologies into perspective. The second discusses the legal issues. The third is devoted to continuous democracy (démocratie continue). This expression, borrowed from Professor Rousseau of the University of Montpellier, is preferable to that of "electronic democracy". The fourth chapter deals with possible initiatives or lines of work for our Parliamentary Assembly.
CHAPTER 1: Putting NCITs into perspective
45. The new communication and information technologies (NCITs) have opened the door to all sorts of speculation. Every kind of claim and counter claim is made. Some commentators see in them an unparalleled potential for progress, while others fear for democracy, thought and culture, and yet others take the easy, but irresponsible laissez faire attitude.
46. The Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations proposes a different path, that of responsibility. This responsibility consists of a healthy suspicion of the positivist utopian view, and looking at things as they really are in order to be able to exercise the necessary political will to ensure that the NCITs are used in the service of man and human progress, in the service of democracy and peace.
A.Technical overview
47. The NCITs are interactive exchange tools par excellence, multiplying the power and efficiency of each actor as never before in history. Now, the principle of exchange and the tools for effective exchanges are the heart and lungs of our civilisation. It is therefore not simply giving way to fashion to assert that these technologies are going to profoundly modify the functioning of our societies and will hence have a decisive influence of the world of the future.
48. The union of computers and communications technologies and the various machines which gravitate around these components fits naturally into a network logic. Interdependent and worldwide networks, associating sound, text and image, are giving birth to a global communications system.
49. While the microcomputer is at present the instrument giving easiest access to these networks, it should be noted that television companies are also determined to adapt their technologies to permit rapid access to the Web for individuals.
50. This Web, which consists and will go on consisting of millions of interconnected computers, on line 24 hours a day, permits users to access millions of information sources, switching from one computer to another at the click of a mouse.
51. Technically, Internet, which is not itself a network but a protocol common to computers using telephone networks, satellites and optical fibre networks, broadly prefigures what will soon become generalised.
52. In short, the NCITs make it possible to store, process, and transmit sound, image and text, associating many actors as both producers and consumers.
53. These actors may equally well be individuals or organisations, private or public, clients or suppliers, administrations, towns, regions, states...
54. The system operates whatever the qualities and objectives of the actors, whether they are honest or dishonest, whether they have good or bad reasons, whether they are motivated by good or bad intentions, whether they want to supply or receive information, to be useful or harmful, to enrich the mind or to corrupt it, for work or play, to sell or buy, to defend democratic values or to deny them, to help live or to incite to murder, for the general interest or to exploit human weaknesses, to teach or to learn.
B. The challenges to society
55. This enumeration of the possibilities shows that the NCITs concern all aspects of daily life, whether it be a matter of individual or collective behaviour.
56. While today it is only a minority of our fellow-citizens, companies, towns, regions or governments which are active participants, the observed trends leave no room for doubt: the NCITs are going to modify social relations, i.e. society itself. Under their influence, production methods, the organisation of work (fragmentation of the enterprise, home working, contracting out, shortening of occupational cycles, growth of self-employment, continuing training, etc.), firms' strategies, client-supplier relations, exchanges of information, the tools of the political function and citizenship, methods of acquiring knowledge, forms and patterns of leisure, the legal frameworks for human relations, both personal and professional, the content of national sovereignty, etc., are all going to change.
57. These prospects are contributing to the accelerated demassification of our societies, which are going to progressively organise themselves in networks, going beyond the traditional unity of place, time and action of human activities.
58. Some of us believe that the current period of transition involves technical, political and cultural changes.
59. This period of transition is a difficult time and involves certain dangers: "The old is dying, the new cannot yet see the light of day: in this interregnum monsters appear". This line by Gramsci nicely sums up the difficulties facing our societies.
60. This is yet another reason for not allowing this mutation to come about at the price of renouncing what has been built up in the name of democratic values. Democracy, peace, social progress, rule of law, the central place of man as the meaning and purpose of politics, cannot be put aside on the pretext that the NCITs are ushering in a new age.
61. The plethora of information with which we are flooded is a first indication that these NCITs do not make things easier, nor men wiser or more virtuous. The upheaval in former Yugoslavia and the unspeakable genocide to which it led, or again the ethnic and nationalist conflicts we thought belonged to a bygone age, are eloquent examples.
62. Will the demassification of our societies also affect the composition of states themselves? Will we have to manage a multitude of sovereign states organised in networks tomorrow?
63. The NCITs whose first developments we are now seeing, do not prevent the growth of unemployment or social inequalities. The worst thing is that the NCITs give many people the feeling that what is described as progress is in fact regression. The new technologies are destroying many jobs. We tend to think only of these disappearing jobs, but at the same time new services and occupations are springing up.
64. In reality these comments and observations simply show that the future has to be built by man himself. Elected representatives have responsibilities here, and it is because they are not properly assuming them today that citizens distrust the political function, and democracy and its values are being weakened, endangered even. Nothing is worse than hiding one's head in the sand and waiting for things to sort themselves out, as if political will did not exist.
65. The citizens do not need spectator politicians who spend all day ruing the fact that nothing can be done.
66. Because the NCITs are going to change our societies, the implications have to be made intelligible to all. It is necessary to understand the possibilities opened up by these technologies for better meeting the needs of our societies. Their developments and their uses should have real social utility.
67. The concept of social utility means that the NCITs must serve the promotion of freedoms, the self-fulfilment of citizens and their more effective participation in public affairs, encourage economic development and employment, respect the rights and dignity of the person, be tools for social and cultural progress, and serve education and the acquisition of knowledge. In short, Europe must not allow the United States to exert virtually monopolistic commercial pressure on the NCITs.
1. Development and financing
68. To acknowledge the importance of these technologies means taking appropriate measures to prevent their increasing the distortions between those countries possessing them and those which have difficulty in financing the necessary investments. What is true on the world level is equally true within European.
69. The cost of the investments involved may raise ethical issues. The need for investment may tend to skew the development of the new technologies and economic considerations may hamper the achievement of the benign objectives of the NCITs as tools for social and cultural progress.
70. Europe should bear part of the start-up costs of certain technologies. Evoking this necessity results in marginalising the role of the Council of Europe which has no financial resources. It is thus for the European Union, directly with its member states, or through agreements with associated governments, to lay down the appropriate policy.
71. On an issue vital for the future of our societies, the European Union should therefore be empowered to launch initiatives, and hence be given the political authority to lay down appropriate regulations and ensure that they are applied.
72. The development of the major networks associated with the NCITs has already led to European Union involvement. According to the European Commission's 1993 white paper on growth, competitiveness and employment, "the objective of developing trans-European networks is to enable citizens, economic operators and regional and local communities to derive full benefit from the setting up of an area without internal frontiers and to link the peripheral regions with the centre".
73. It is thus indeed an economic challenge facing Europe. Can we simply leave it to the market or will it be necessary to find other modes of action to ensure that public service obligations are fulfilled? Can the market alone finance the necessary network development? Is it not necessary to provide for public funding? What should be done to reconcile economic development and the balance between the different regions of Europe?
74. While the development of commercial activities is necessary to finance services and infrastructures, and while action is required to ensure the competition necessary for economic development, it must be admitted that in the fields of culture, education and politics, the notion of competition means something different from what can be offered by the law of the market.
75. The success of the NCITs as regards economic mechanisms, will therefore depend mainly on three factors:
- ease of access;
- confidence;
- the fair sharing of the value added between the return on capital invested, the remuneration of labour to support purchasing power, and the funding of future research and development activities and of social progress.
76. 97.5% of Europe's enterprises are SMEs. The NCITs will probably permit SMEs to better participate in international trade and increase their competitiveness. Direct access to clients will make it possible to reduce distribution costs. A virtual form of proximity, world distribution networks will improve the efficiency of the seller and the purchasing power of the buyer by reducing economic costs. Success will mainly depend on the security of the transactions and of the payment systems.
77. As regards all these points there is a G7 project to increase electronic international trade. The project is jointly managed by the European Union, Japan and the United States, but the EU has the most important role, being responsible in fact for determining the legal and technological requirements.
78. For our part, we should have two requirements: first, not to accept United States hegemony in what will constitute the biggest industrial market in the world and, second, to prevent the NCITs being used mainly to further the globalisation of the economy, with the sole aim of increasing the financial power of the multinationals.
79. Once the question of the development and financing of the networks is raised, with the aim of not irremediably increasing the inequalities associated with the adoption of the NCITs the question also arises of access to the networks.
2. NCITs: access to the networks
80. Will every citizen have the right to be a producer as well as a consumer? Will the operators controlling interactive decoders and the user fee collectors, like the present cable operators, have control over the content of the transmissions they handle? There is a danger that the power given to a limited number of operators will induce them to seek the lowest common denominator, that of simplicity and immediate financial gain.
81. In view of the price of the equipment required and the minimum training necessary for their use, the information technologies pose the question of equality of opportunity in very clear terms.
82. Contrary to what our colleague the Rapporteur from our Assembly's Committee on Economic Affairs wrote, this question will not be easily resolved, given the difficult social situation experienced by a growing number of our fellow citizens.
83. As a result, if we are not careful the NCITs could create an unbridgeable gap between the disadvantaged and the privileged. Whereas the information society makes sense only if it offers all citizens equitable, inexpensive and user-friendly access to the networks.
84. It is each country's responsibility to take appropriate initiatives to ensure that government departments, decentralised authorities and towns provide open access facilities, in other words veritable NCIT service stations.
85. The need to avoid creating further social inequalities leads to the question of public service. The notion of universal service is different from that of public service and nobody can say today how governments will oblige operators to make computers available to the poorest people or connect all households to optical fibre networks. The United States promotes the concept of free access to networks, a concept which means providing public places where anyone can have access to them.
86. If we want to be true to democratic values, particularly the principle of equality, it will be necessary to provide non-commercial services for education, civic instruction, health, information, respect for pluralism, culture, administration and public order.
3. NCITs and education
87. Since access to the network ought to be made democratic, it is necessary to consider how to educate the citizens in the use of the NCITs: education for young people within the school system, continuing training for adults. In its Draft Opinion of 15.12.1995, our Committee on Culture and Education listed a series of concerns and reflections which we could take up. How can or should general and vocational training be adapted to include multimedia theory and applications? Will society become even further individualised, and what can be done about it? Our committee recalls that cultural cohesion and solidarity are essential to any national existence and coexistence.
88. The Council of Europe is particularly well placed to remind everybody that training in the NCITs for young people will be much more inegalitarian if it is not done through the schools. This essential training by the school system implies considerable changes and effort on the part of the teaching body. As well as schools, central government departments and decentralised local authorities have a vital training role to play.
4. NCITs and culture
89. In the cultural field, the NCITs must not give rise to a new universal ideology other than that of democratic values in the service of the inalienable rights of the individual and the citizen.
90. It is in the cultural field that philosophers, sociologists, academics and writers have the greatest reservations about the NCITs. Intellectual circles express great fears and many point out that while we may live in a global village, the people in the next village are killing each other with knives or machetes.
91. Are the abolition of distance and the gradual disappearance of the unity of place, time and action, which nevertheless still characterises by far the greater part of our activities, likely to really endanger our culture? Do the NCITs leave any place for reflection, for a sustained effort of thought? Are we going to stop writing, stop reading? Will we be satisfied with the illusion of conviviality at 10 000 km distance? Will the extraordinary volume of available information and images lead to excesses?
92. All these open questions do not boil down to a confrontation of preconceived ideas however. Our children will naturally have a culture different from our own. They already have. We ourselves have a culture different from that of our parents and grandparents. The fact of discovering the world through the Internet or on CD ROM does not necessarily lead to cultural narrowness. Students who use CD ROMs devoted to a given author, a given literary work or a given period of history to prepare for their examinations often understand these subjects better than if they limited themselves simply to the courses given. Major museums issue CDs which can inspire a new public to visit the museum itself. In the fields of science and language studies the NCITs will certainly be very valuable aids to the acquisition of knowledge and culture.
93. Rather than getting involved in a long debate on the subject of whether man is becoming robotised or robots are becoming humanised, we can simply agree with Léon Scheer that "The present technological revolution is creating for the first time the conditions for overload, challenging the collective imagination to create a civilisation which can take charge of it". This challenge requires politicians to manage this overload, in association with the citizens, by choosing the path of democracy.
94. Before evoking the relations between the NCITs and the law on the one hand and the functioning of democracy on the other, two other subjects call for comment. The first concerns employment and the probable need to redefine our traditional ideas on work. The second concerns the ethic which has to reconcile a new area of freedom with respect for the law of the land.
5. NCITs and employment
95. In preceding paragraphs we have considered the economic advantages NCITs probably represent for the development of enterprises. The changes that will come about in the organisation of work and production have also been mentioned. This new economic environment will have, and is indeed already having, effects on employment.
96. In the present phase, the new technologies appear to be destroying more jobs than they create. However, our economies are recording new activities, new exchanges and a multitude of new occupations and services. Citizens' opinions are divided and the politicians do not give the impression that they are really in control of the situation.
97. What are the reasons for the difficulty in finding solutions to the unemployment problem at the very time when a new economy is evolving?
- The first reason is of an economic nature, and confirms, in a way, the law of decreasing returns. Productivity gains are very costly in social terms. The creation of wealth requires ever increasing amounts of fixed capital and ever decreasing amounts of labour.
- The second reason is that with the globalisation of the economy, governments' possibilities for action are much more restricted than in the past. The nation state is in decline. Yet, in times of difficulty the role of the State is vital for maintaining the social cohesion of the society.
- The third reason is of a cultural nature and is, no doubt, the most important one for the future. Our societies are prisoner's of outdated models. Unemployment being the biggest scourge of our European societies and one which entails a real threat to democracy, we need to rethink our traditional ideas on work and employment.
98. It is obvious that new needs exist and new activities are necessary. These needs and activities exist in both the market and non-market sectors. The former will find the responses brought by the market, but the latter, often the most essential for social cohesion, correspond to a demand which cannot always be met, though the needs are real. How to finance them, how to share the wealth created thanks to the NCITs? How, in the field of employment, to radically rethink regional development?
99. Nation states, and also decentralised local authorities, need to take political, cultural and financial initiatives in favour of employment. To be able to hope for any kind of success, policy-makers must free themselves of a single way of thinking which is not so much the fact of a particular State as of theoreticians and practitioners who use multinationals to impose a dominant model.
100. The problem is thus a political one, and on this subject there are deep divides.
6. NCITs and ethics
101. The role of the state is essential for ensuring that the ethical rules protecting the dignity of the person are imposed on the accessible information circulating on the networks.
102. The NCITs are obviously tools which permit greater individual freedom. This new area of freedom must respect the law however. We may perhaps recall a fundamental democratic principle: in the state of nature it is freedom which oppresses and law which sets one free".
103. Without wanting to set ourselves up as moralists, we must say that the information disseminated on the networks makes frequent reference to pornography and paedophilia. Certain people may be incited to delinquency, kidnapping and even murder to supply young girls and boys to networks of perverts. In a world where collective moral and ethical values tend to be forgotten in the face of the social problems connected with unemployment and exclusion, life is becoming just one commodity among others. On these networks we find the promotion of violence and terrorism, racial hatred and fascist propaganda, mafiosi and delinquents. However, this reverse side of the coin should certainly not make us throw the baby out with the bath water.
104. Our society, for all its faults, does not allow anything to be done, written or disseminated without reacting. There are laws against all illegal acts or those which go against human dignity. This legal arsenal can be applied to the NCITs.
CHAPTER 2: Legal issues
105. The boundaries of freedom on Internet found their limits when on 28.12.95 the German government forced Compuserve to deprive its subscribers of two hundred forums declared outside the law because of their pornographic nature. This measure recalled the notion of limits in a space where there was perhaps a temptation to forget them. In the United States, Senator Jim Exon tabled a "Communication Decency Bill" intended to extend the rules of decency which protect telephone users to the new communications systems.
106. These few examples indicate that the authorities are not indifferent or without response to illegal uses of the NCITs. The authorities, like families, have at their disposal not only the existing law, but also an increasingly sophisticated and efficient technical arsenal. SMEs are already offering software to permit parents to identify networks they may consider harmful for their children, and access systems with several keys can be installed.
107. It should be stressed that the action of the authorities is greatly facilitated by the self-discipline and sense of responsibility of the individuals, groups and firms using the present networks.
108. Internet, in particular, and all the other networks are not outside the law. The period of real transition in which we are living gives rise to fears that new situations are upsetting the present known and established order. It is only natural that evolution should bring changes. Our obligation can be summed up in a few points, we must:
1. Recognise and identify the complexity, often more apparent than real, of the new situations;
2. Check whether the existing law suffices to take account of these new situations;
3. Modify the legislation or propose new more appropriate legislation, as required;
4. Avoid the introduction of unworkable and complex rules which would hamper the evolution and development of the NCITs necessary for the common good.
109. These principles applied to the NCITs show that the existing law permits many of the issues to be settled. The NCITs are in fact in the direct lineage of already-existing technologies which are taken into account by the law, though of course certain additions and amendments will be necessary.
110. On these legal questions, the Council of Europe through the Steering Committee on the Mass Media has confirmed the findings of a study carried out by Mr Lamouline, researcher at the CRID, and Mr Poullet, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Director of the CRID. For its part, the Committee on Legal Affairs, in its opinion on the first report, recalled a list of recommendations and resolutions already adopted by our Assembly.
111. The functional approach to the NCITs suggested by the report by the two CRID experts for finding the law applicable is relevant to our needs. They classify the NCITs according to four main types of function:
1. Message functions:
- Private messages (e.g. e-mail);
- Public messages (e.g. sending messages to a computerised bulletin board system or to a forum, to be read at any time, by specific users or by anybody interested, depending on whether the system is open or closed);
- Real-time conference or video-conference.
2. Information search, delivery and exchange functions:
- Data banks: storage and dissemination of information;
- Homepage function: any individual or enterprise can create its own homepage on Internet, accessible to any user, thanks in particular to the use of the HyperText Markup Language (HTML), for publicity purposes;
- Information services (e.g. press agencies).
3. Remote transaction functions:
- Commercial services: sales, purchases, services, banks, payments;
- Software distribution.
4. Teleprocessing functions:
- video on demand.
- video game on demand;
- distance learning.
112. The experts point out that in an open electronic network environment, public and private communications are mixed up together, so that it is difficult to identify them. They consider that the legal rules governing private communications services pose few problems, but this is not the case for public communications. They confirm that the objectives here are the protection of public order, state security, the protection of the general interest, morality, the protection of minors and the rights of third parties. All things that we ourselves have pointed out.
113. The legal difficulty lies in reconciling the freedom of any individual to see the data and information he desires, with the enforcement of common rules. Installing decoding systems or regulating the networks as regards the content of the information is legitimate provided that there are no other effective means. The authors recall, as we have, that technical resources backed up by a willingness for self-discipline and self-regulation permit the peaceful coexistence of competing freedoms. When it is necessary to regulate, the proportionality principle is called for, to establish a just equilibrium between the measure and the public order objectives.
114. The experts also raise the key question of the liability of the actors present on the information networks. They consider that the definition of a clear system of liability applying to the new media is not going to be easy for two reasons: first, the evolution of the media, then the problem of defining the law applicable in a space which knows no frontiers. On this latter point, the authors of the report on the mass media recommend the criterion of the place of transmission. Making information available will be legal if it respects the law of the place where the server is located, regardless of the law of the place where the information is consumed. The limits of this idea are immediately apparent: are we going to see the development of computerised flags of convenience?
115. Everybody is recommended to refer to the very detailed report by MM Lamouline and Poullet.
116. For his part, your Rapporteur considers that the reality is in the end less complex than it appears. The NCITs are the point of convergence of several known technologies: telecommunications, computers and television, which already handle public and private communications.
117. The NCITs thus come under existing specialised regulations. The networks do not escape the criminal law and civil law rules which are already playing an increasing role in computer applications.
118. By way of example, the new French Civil Code gives such extensive powers to the courts that they can institute proceedings for any offence taking place on French soil. In other words, all or virtually all offences are within the jurisdiction of French courts.
119. The question of copyright is often cited as an example to show that networks of the Internet type do not respect this intellectual property right which is one of the most widely recognised and best protected on the international level. The Berne Convention, the specific section of the GATT agreements and the relevant European directives are very strict and rare are those who take the risk of international penalties. Counterfeiting and other offences are subject to judicial decisions which are almost always enforced.
120. The right to quote, to reproduce a work in whole or in part to digitalise, today have to obey rules which make it obligatory to obtain the authorisation of the author, his heirs or his legal successors.
121. Up to now, the users of network services have been protected because it is admitted, in practice, that the law applicable is that of the country of residence or the country of reception. Thus a service destined for Europeans must simultaneously obey the laws applicable in all member States.
122. In the case of electronic shopping, the trader is well advised to take account of the regulations applying to both mail order and door-to-door selling.
123. In the light of all this, the error to be avoided is creating a legal straightjacket which will cause rigidities in the NCITs whose effects on the modernisation of society should be piloted flexibly. Flexibility here does not mean the absence of general interest objectives, but corresponds to the harsh reality that under democracy no legal system can prevent manipulation, lying, the giving of false information, counterfeiting and attempts to take advantage of people's good faith.
124. As we wish to serve the common good, our work should be concentrated on clarifying and simplifying the existing law. Several paths are frequently proposed by law practitioners, for example:
- draw up a European code of electronic commerce;
- disconnect the law concerning the information from the medium used to carry it and the technical support in which it is integrated;
- extend the law on software to firms' own creations.
The competent committees of our Assembly might study the feasibility of these proposals.
CHAPTER 3: NCITs and the functioning of representative democracy
125. Representative democracy is currently experiencing a crisis of confidence. Can the NCITs offer useful assistance in this regard?
126. To function properly, representative democracy must provide for citizens' confidence in four main areas:
- the very principles of democracy
- their right to vote
- the principle of representation
- the political function and their elected members.
1. Confidence in democracy
127. As has been agreed by all the relevant studies and confirmed by opinion surveys, our citizens are generally attached to democratic principles and values. Despite a number of shortcomings, democracy guarantees the peaceful settlement of conflicts and of differences of opinion and interests. By means of consultation, dialogue, compromise and the exercise of the vote, democracy safeguards the rule of law and domestic tranquillity, to which the great majority of our fellow citizens aspire.
2. Confidence in the right to vote
128. Representative democracy depends on citizen participation in elections and the interest they show in the workings of society between elections. Citizenship is the concrete manifestation of the political equality summed up by the principle that all men and women are born free and equal before the law.
129. The first sign of persons' loss of confidence in their role as citizens is abstention at elections. The abstention rate is increasing in many countries.
130. There are at least two reasons for such abstention rates:
- doubts about the real value of the vote
- rejection of the policies on offer.
131. Participation in elections naturally differs from one country to another. Participation rates depend firstly on the importance citizens attach to a forthcoming election.
132. Citizens have an alternative to abstaining to show their discontent. Here, the option chosen is to scatter votes among marginal or extremist political parties. In such cases, xenophobic behaviour, nationalist tendencies and the search for scapegoats can all serve as pretexts.
133. This initial critical finding shows that citizens are increasingly unwilling to accept from their leaders, policies which condemn them to a social role which compromises their future within their own community.
134. NCITs can encourage greater citizen participation in political decision making before the decisions are taken. Prior conditions for this are greater transparency and correct information. Another precondition is that the right financial conditions are met and that democratic principles are respected. These issues will be considered further in the examination of the advantages and disadvantages of certain practical measures.
3. Confidence in the principle of representation
135. Representative democracy has been accepted as the best expression of political democracy for a number of reasons. Citizens are too numerous and too dispersed to constantly make decisions for the whole community.
136. The adoption of universal suffrage and the rejection of the absolute mandate have, over time, legitimised representative democracy.
137. Representative democracy has in turn given rise to political parties conceived and constituted to unite groups of citizens around unifying themes. Political parties have occupied, and continue to occupy, a very important place in political democracy. When political parties are banned or there is only a single party, democracy does not exist.
138. Political parties are in a state of crisis. The criticisms levelled at them vary in intensity from country to country. These criticisms focus on a number of major issues: declining representativeness, government by faction, loss of confidence, unkept promises, internal struggles, media-oriented personality politics, a refusal to face up to necessary changes and so on.
139. As things stand at present, generalist political parties are suffering more than ones with a narrower focus or which seek out the protest vote. The first are confronted with the globalisation of problems, the internationalisation of financial and economic power and the exceptionally varied and individualised nature of social problems. Their difficulties explain the growing success of parties offering partial, carefully targeted solutions, thus reinforcing a fragmented approach to society and individualism.
140. The rehabilitation of political parties is essential and must be undertaken by their leaders.
141. Representative democracy can be supplemented by a number of forms of direct democracy, in particular the referendum, which is used to varying extents according to the country concerned.
142. Other countries have opted for a very decentralised administrative structure to bring power closer to the people.
4. Confidence in the political function
143. Citizens' confidence in the political function has changed. This does not necessarily apply to all European countries but observation suggests that it is true in the majority of cases.
144. Citizens reproach politicians with not measuring up to the promises that they make at elections. Certainly, day after day, citizens are aware of the growing number of problems that are only partially or badly resolved. Nothing is worse for representative democracy, the source of whose legitimacy is political will, than a sense of impotence before a rising tide of events.
145. Citizens' mistrust has become even more marked since the advent of doubts about the probity and competence of political circles. Such feelings are nourished by individual events coupled with the perception that politicians see themselves as being above the law.
5. What has changed in society?
146. The democratic principles on which our institutions and procedures are based in 1996 are the same as those that paved the way for the victory of pluralist political democracy and the achievement of a European social and cultural model. How is it that what worked well before is now giving only mediocre results?
147. What has changed is the cultural, sociological, economic and geopolitical environment. Frontiers have faded away. The world is accessible to us in real time. Technological and scientific developments are giving rise to new means of production which affect social relationships and produce new life styles.
148. The world is changing faster than our attitudes and our capacity to adapt.
149. Other factors need to be taken into consideration:
- individualism, which is taking precedence over collective commitments
- the value of money, which dominates our society
- the complexity of society, which gives an important role to technology
- the specialisation and atomisation of activities and behaviour
- the decline of the national political scene
- the large number of authorities which compete for political power.
150. Under these circumstances, what can NCITs hope to contribute?
151. The first characteristic of NCITs is their uncertainty. These new technologies offer new opportunities and options but they can have a range of repercussions.
152. There are three dangers to avoid:
- the degeneration of the general interest into mass conformism
- the degeneration of pluralism and diversity into factionalism
- the degeneration of citizen action into individualism.
153. The following description of the risks and advantages that NCITs hold out for political democracy is necessarily incomplete. Each day that passes offers further positive or negative examples. The risks will be considered first.
a. the risks
154. The risks include a reduction in political choice, the manipulation, commercialisation and fragmentation of the political message, a surfeit of opinion polls, the marginalisation of parliamentary procedures, social discrimination, the monitoring of citizens, a rise in individualism and the danger of an instant but devalued form of democracy.
155. The reduction in political choice
Politicians, whether they are standing for election or simply wanting to communicate with citizens, have access to a range of instruments such as video-conferences, video-cassettes and e-mail. Superficially, these instruments are highly suitable, but in practice they deprive citizens of personal contact and a direct relationship with politicians. The resulting stereotyping of the messages reduces what the latter have to offer.
156. The risk of manipulation
NCITs call for significant financial resources. There is a danger that politics will be dominated by the owners of veritable multimedia empires. European examples already exist. It will probably be necessary to deal with the institutional problem and stress that the exercise of power is incompatible with control of the major means of communication.
157. The commercialisation and fragmentation of the political message
In the political field, political campaigns make increasing use of means of communicating with voters that were originally developed to sell products directly to consumers. Lists of addresses are consulted which identify categories of voters according to their interests and prospects, who then receive cassettes, telephone calls or personalised letters. Political commercialisation is therefore another factor in the demassification of society. It has the immediate effect of breaking down generalised public opinion, leading to a fragmentation of the electorate.
The fragmentation of the electorate and the consequent segmentation of society in turn have an effect on political programmes, or at least on the way they are drawn up, and on the way their implementation is sought. An emphasis is placed on sectoral policies, thus reducing citizens' opportunities to assess their general interests and thus to think in terms of possible options.
158. A surfeit of opinion polls
Opinion polls are one of the main weapons in the techno-political armoury. They deliberately combine messages, consultation and decisions. Here again, the result can be a fragmentation of the body of citizens into certain groups qualified to express opinions. The incessant and growing use of opinion polls is the result of the opportunities opened up by information collection and processing techniques which have made it possible to reduce the sample sizes required to secure reliable data, increase representativeness and reduce margins of error. Pollsters in the United States claim that a sample of 1000 persons is now sufficient to give answers that will only vary by up to 0,75% from those forthcoming from consulting the entire electorate. We have thus reached the peak of artificiality, with the identification of sovereign opinion entirely through a statistical construction.
159. The marginalisation of parliamentary procedures
The rise of opinion polls and the increasing opportunities for direct citizen involvement offered by interactive communication facilities will make certain parliamentary procedures obsolete. Under these circumstances, the need for the parliamentary institution itself may be questioned and the danger of manipulation referred to above will be increased accordingly.
160. Social discrimination
The development of NCITs that are not to everyone's benefit would be contrary to the principle of equality. There is a very real risk of a new social stratification between those who do and those who do not possess certain information. As well as creating the financial conditions for access, we must develop training policies for the new technologies in order to avoid the sort of mass exclusion which would sap the communication society of its democratic element. Democracy cannot be separated from a continuous process of citizen participation. We can thus begin to identify the new services which must be genuinely universal and, in some cases, take on the character of public services.
161. Access to NCIT networks
It can only be on an equal basis if we take account of economic and social differences. Networks must become open, accessible and interactive, to enable citizens to participate in administrative and political affairs and have a direct impact on them. The current problem is that the notion of a universal service still leaves unresolved the issue of the cost of information and services. The wealthiest and the best qualified could end up with the most extensive access. There is also a danger that the least well-off will use new technologies for making purchases and games, rather than for securing the information necessary for forming opinions.
162. The social monitoring of citizens
The risk referred to here is well understood: the information society may double up as the surveillance society. The use of NCITs, particularly in conjunction with digitalisation, will vastly increase the volume of information on operations and transactions performed. All electronic messages leave tracks. The danger is that these tracks will be used and exploited by whoever control the networks for their own commercial or political purposes.
163. Individualisation
Generalised multimedia interactivity offers individuals links to various areas of activity: work, education, public administration, health, health, culture, research and so on. These individuals can compose and choose their programmes and interact as they wish. One pessimistic view is that these networks will encourage individualistic trends in society. Such an outcome would inevitably have implications for the working of democracy, particularly by making it more difficult to identify, conceive and participate in a shared social landscape. The opposite hypothesis will be considered among the advantages of NCITs.
164. The key issue: instant democracy
The misuse of technology can produce a dangerous form of instant democracy in which voting is dissociated from deliberation. It is the deliberative process that gives substance, content and stability to public opinion. Democracy calls for information gathering and analysis, discussion and debate, an ability to stand back, exchanges of ideas, an ability to put things into perspective and the taking of decisions. If citizens are to be given real power, they need more than the opportunity to press a button. If we are to become responsible citizens, we must take part in an continuing process of public discussion and debate and we need information that will encourage us to reflect on our initial responses and modify them in the light of what we learn from and can teach others.
b. Useful perspectives
165. We need to take account not only of the risks but also of the actual or potential advantages of new communication and information technologies.
166. Interactivity
The NCITs allow a degree of interactivity to replace the inherently passive nature of reading newspapers, listening to the radio or watching television. The wide range of choice offered by multimedia facilities means that individuals are no longer confined to the choices imposed by television. NCITs make it possible to combine images, sounds and documents into a single programme, created directly by its author.
Individual education and training using NCITs can contribute to the emergence of a new type of public domain based on the processing rather than the mere reception of information. This new public domain may encourage forms of exchange and social relationships which no longer exist today. NCITs offer the prospect of continuous exchanges with other persons.
167. NCITs: relations between citizens and government and citizens and elected representatives
Some of the most important NCIT applications occur at the local level. Given the technical possibilities inherent in information flows which can easily cross frontiers, continents and oceans, this may seem paradoxical. New communication and information technologies are now widely established in local authorities. Often, this takes the form of automated services which citizens can access with a magnetic card and from which they can obtain information, documentation on civil status and services. E-mail is used as a continuous information circuit between politicians and citizens. NCITs can also make a valuable contribution to election campaigns and elections. The democratic principle of one man one vote - with man used in the generic sense - is quite consistent with communications technology. Thanks to electronic voting, there would be nothing to prevent the future elector from dividing his or her vote into several parts allocated to different candidates or political parties.
168. A number of European cities have established computer liaison systems between citizens and the local authority. At the Parliamentary Assembly's seminar on electronic democracy in Paris on 23-24 May 1995, two case studies were presented: Bologna and Amsterdam. Their systems enable citizens to obtain information from their authority and for the latter to gather information about the needs of its population. The result is a form of two-way communication and a new situation which has given rise to a new concept: electronic citizenship.
This also raises the possibility of dealing electronically with subjects of collective significance which differ significantly from those currently discussed, because of the total absence of spatial and temporal constraints.
169. It would be wrong to confine this review of electronic democracy to election campaigns and elections. What is much more relevant is whether it is possible to involve citizens in the processes of government on a continuing basis. In this context, computerised public services not only improve authorities' effectiveness but also help to inform and educate, thus contributing to enlightened and responsible citizenship.
170. It is difficult to secure participation in large political units. However, NCITs make it possible to set up conversations and debates which could once only take place in a face-to-face setting. Such electronic meetings can be backed up by data bases exceeding anything that previous generations had to offer. NCITs and their interactive capacity can be used to mount two-way debates between citizens themselves as well as between citizens and elected representatives. E-mail is also used to enable individuals and groups to send members of parliament amendments to draft legislation currently under consideration.
171. The democratic dimension of NCITs is subject to a number of considerations.
Firstly, there must be rules to determine what must remain within the public domain and what can be left solely to market forces. It is therefore essential to decide whether certain types of access must be free or very inexpensive, while at the same time identifying the authority responsible for providing the resources necessary to achieve this social goal.
Secondly, giving citizens more power is not the same as surrendering lamely to the tastes and expectations of the greatest number, giving the impression of sailing purely with the wind. What is really required is a concept of interaction which makes citizens full partners in proposals with a significant impact on society, right from the outset.
172. NCITs can extend participation to debates and decisions, meetings and assemblies. They can help democracy to develop new forms of expression better suited to the end of the century. Used badly, NCITs can have a damaging effect. They could transform citizens into passive spectators, soothed and deceived by homogeneous and coaxing messages. They can ignore the rich diversity of collective life and opt for an appeal to an undifferentiated mass popular opinion.
173. In reality, NCITs are simply instruments. Everything must be done to ensure that society make proper use of them. If this to be achieved, the relevant choices must not be left to a technical elite or made solely with reference to economic criteria.
CHAPTER 4: Action required
174. The action which the Assembly is required to take is straightforward and concerns, firstly, recommendations to national parliaments and, secondly, the Assembly itself.
1. Recommendations to parliaments
175. The most important recommendations concern the setting up of networks, access conditions, the notion of public and universal service, the equality principle, laws governing the protection of private data, the protection of young people, respect for ethical rules and measures to combat racial hatred, violence, drugs and pornography. On all these points, drawing on existing national legislation and in close co-operation with the European Union, the Council of Europe can help to establish rules that are flexible enough to permit the development of NCITs and sufficiently rigid to encourage their use for good democratic purposes.
176. These initial recommendations must also be concerned with education and training in the use of instruments, with access being offered to new communication and information technologies in schools and colleges.
177. The relevant equipment must be made available to public authorities, decentralised bodies and citizens in accessible locations and at prices that are within their means.
178. Agreement must be reached with parliaments, political parties and elected representatives on ways of increasing citizen participation in political decision making.
179. In order to monitor the follow-up to these recommendations and establish what measures have been introduced or are being developed in each member country, the Assembly should invite the parliaments concerned to report annually on any relevant steps taken. It should also monitor the work of the European Union.
2. Recommendations to our Assembly
180. Two series of recommendations:
firstly, it emerges from our committees' preliminary discussions on the first report that the Assembly is not in a position to launch any useful legal initiatives. For some members, it is too early for this.
181. Having regard to what is at stake, therefore, the role of the Assembly and its committees should be to work together to ensure a better understanding of the problems associated with NCITs' development and how to deal with them:
- the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights should report annually to the Assembly on how the legal aspects are changing and being dealt with and what initiatives are required;
- the Committee on Science and Technology should report on changes in new communication and information technologies;
- the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development should report on changes relating to the establishment of networks, investment and so on;
- the Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations should report on all the uses of NCITs affecting the functioning of democracy.
182. By itself, the appropriate use of NCITs is not enough to solve the crisis of representative democracy. The reality is more complex. Politicians must be involved in building a new civilisation.
183. As far as this central issue is concerned, politicians must commit themselves to restoring citizens' confidence. This does not mean making rash promises. Restoring confidence means:
- countering tendencies towards insularity, self-centredness and racism;
- fighting for universal rights and values;
- giving citizens the means to play a positive and active role in affairs.
184. In practice, restoring confidence means launching a debate on the key issue of what judgment to pass on a dominant economic system which is throwing Europe's social consensus into chaos.
185. This economic system, which gives priority to monetary values, is having socially destructive effects. There are those who consider liberal management of the market economy to be absolutely essential. They must demonstrate how this system is consistent with democratic values and how it can permit the development of a social pact for progress.
186. Others believe that the dominant economic system must be countered on the grounds that its social and human consequences are too remote from the democratic model to which Europeans have subscribed for the last century. It is their responsibility to explain how they intend to harness the necessary democratic forces to ensure the acceptance of their fellow citizens.
187. Can a Europe that is still economically, financially, politically and culturally strong produce a model of civilisation that would meet everyone's requirements? One that is capable of placing man at the centre of the social movement and of dealing with the problems of the modern world.
188. If we make this objective the centrepiece of our European commitment, it must represent something other than the selfish defence of accumulated benefits and rights. We must put forward ways and means of achieving a social model with a universal value and which accords with the founding values of political democracy.
189. These issues need to be debated in the Parliamentary Assembly, which, although it was born out of the cold war, has shown its ability to welcome members which were formerly subject to the totalitarian ideology of single parties but are now free. It would be paradoxical if, having vanquished the notion of single ideology dominance over people's lives, we accepted as quite natural the domination of a single way of thinking and the totalitarianism of money.
190. It may be that this critical debate is not in keeping with the search for consensus that characterises our Assembly. There is always a consensus when it comes to demanding respect for democratic principles and values. It would be wrong to maintain it artificially by blocking debate on Europe's future. Our fellow citizens would not thank us for this.
191. We simply need to open our eyes to see that the principal malaise affecting Europe is the combined phenomenon of unemployment and exclusion. Europe is having difficulty in coping with international competition. The model of society that we have developed in western Europe and which we are holding out to the countries of central and eastern Europe is under attack. Our fellow citizens are invited to make greater efforts and accept less protection, less job security and reduced purchasing power at a time when global wealth, as well as global inequalities, are increasing.
192. This is sufficient justification for the serious debate which Europe needs, with particular emphasis on the participative democracy which can benefit from the new communication and information technologies. We must establish a continuing form of representative democracy.
Reporting committee: Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations
Budgetary implications for the Assembly: none
Reference to committee: Doc. 7288 and Reference No. 2010 of 22 May 1995
Draft resolution unanimously adopted by the committee on 20 March 1997.
Members of the committee: Mrs Mihaylova (Chairperson), Mr Kelam (Vice-Chairman), Mrs Arnold, Mr Berceanu, Sir Andrew Bowden, MM. Brennan, Bugli, Mrs Bušic, MM. Cardona, Christodoulides, Colombier (Alternate: Masseret), Columberg, Dagys, Diacov, Dzasokhov, Eversdijk, Mrs Fernandez de la Vega, Mr Fogaš (Fico), Mrs Grzeskowiak, MM. Henry (Alternate; Staes), Horn, Hughes, Kollwelter, Kotlar, Koulouris, Külahli, Laakso, Lauricella, Lekberg, Likhachev, Lummer, Martins (Alternate: Pereira Marques), Mignon, Minarolli, Moser, Mrs Nistad, MM. Pahor, Pantelejevs, Mrs Ragnarsdóttir, MM. Rott, Samofalov (Alternate: Popesku), Speroni, Svoboda.
N.B. The names of those members who took part in the vote are printed in italics.
Secretaries to the Committee: Mr La Porta and Mrs Theophilova
1 1 By the Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations
2 2New communication and information technologies