Deliberative Democracy under ICTs in Taiwan: A Comparison between On-line and Face-to-Face Citizen Conference

Abstract

In recent years, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have\nbeen increasingly utilized in public affairs due to its low-costs of facilitating\nhuman interactions. Many researches have been starting to explore the\npossibilities of adopting ICTs to deepen democracy by encouraging citizen\nparticipation. On the one hand, it is believed that the potential applications of ICTs\ncan not only transform voting activities, but also facilitate meaningful deliberative\nactivities. However, on the other hands, some researchers have been argued that\nbecause of certain aspects of ICTs, the applications may damage the quality of\ndemocratic operations. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to analyze the\nimpacts of ICTs on deliberative process by examining the differences between\non-line and face-to-face deliberative activities. By using an urban-planning project operated in Beitou district, Taipei City as\nthe critical case, authors collect both qualitative and quantitative data to compare\ntwo simultaneously held citizen conferences, which are to encourage citizen\nparticipation in the urban-planning process. These two citizen conferences, one is\non-line and the other is face-to face, discuss the same issue, use the same\nprocedure, and deliberate on the same readable materials. It gives us a\nquasi-experimental set-up to explore the effects of ICTs will have on deliberative\ndemocracy.\nThe research findings show that ICTs application could improve the\neffectiveness of the citizen conference. The on-line citizen conference delivers\nmore policy knowledge to participants than the face-to-face one. In addition,\nparticipants in on-line model are more “rational” and are more likely to express\ntheir opinions. However, more researches should be done to clarify the causal\nrelations between the ICTs and the deliberative democracy.

近來資訊與通訊科技（Information and Communication Technologies,\nICTs）的蓬勃發展，普遍被認為具有降低決策參與成本的潛力，對各國民主\n深化的目標帶來希望，不論推動電子投票（e-voting），也就是在民主「偏好\n聚合」（preference aggregation）機制上電子化的努力，或是在線上審議\n（e-deliberation）的研究與實驗，就是在民主「偏好形成」（preference formation\n）環節上的努力，都被視為人類社會實踐更大規模、更具品質民主形式的一\n種最新的契機。本文挑選後者作為討論的重心，一方面認為選舉只是民主實\n踐的必要條件，但並不充分；另一方面，也認知到民主討論成本昂貴的現實，讓民主審議有著比投票更大的誘因來找尋成本節制的方法，因此我們認為，\n如果民主審議機制能夠利用 ICTs 低廉成本的特性，同時又能夠與實體討論保\n持相同或是更佳的討論品質，則相關線上審議的決策程序，就會是下一步民\n主深化不可忽視的道路之一。本文目的就是在這樣的一個實務與理論雙重的\n意義之下，希望透過個案研究的方式，分析資訊科技對公民參與效果的差異\n性影響，進一步為未來藉資訊科技提升公民參與之可行性提供導引。\n本文的研究方法，係藉由臺北市北投老街地區，同時以傳統面對面公民\n會議（face to face citizen conference），以及應用 ICTs 進行「線上公民會議」\n（online citizen conference）討論都市更新的案例，以兩種會議模式與會者的\n前後測問卷，以及會後深度訪談為資料內容，探討兩種會議模式下的參與民\n眾，在政策知識學習效果、共識形成、發言效果、滿意度等層面上的差異。\n從資料的分析中，本研究認為 ICTs 對於公民審議上的效果相較於傳統面\n對面的會議，更能夠提升政策知識的傳遞效果，讓所有與會者更有效率的獲\n得相關政策知識；此外，線上公民會議共識聚合的可能性高於傳統公民會議\n模式；而在參與效果上，參與線上開會模式，比起傳統會議模式，更能驅動\n不善於言辭民眾的講話機會與動機。不過，目前有限經驗資料下，本文期待\n學界，能夠有更多相關研究延續本文所提出的幾點推論，補充更多的經驗資\n料，讓 ICTs 與審議民主之間能夠完全的相輔相成，並在未來能夠有更有效\n率、更全面、更低成本的公民參與機制出現，達到民主治理的目標。