E-demokratins diskursiva ordning: Om mötet mellan IT och demokrati i svenska kommuner [The Discursive Order of E-Democracy: On the Meeting Between IT and Democracy in Swedish Municipalities]

Abstract

This is a case study of two Swedish municipalities, Göteborg and Tranemo, and their work with IT and democracy issues. The objective is to reveal, with a focus on discourse, those power structures that constitute and determine an IT and democracy activity. With a theoretical grounding in Habermas, I argue that the discourse is characterized by what I conceive as a technological form of politics. The content of this form of politics has characteristics such as a non-value-dependent policy, and unproblematised consensus and an expert dependency. Furthermore, within this area of discourse there is an implicit, but regulatory, individualistic democratic ideal and a being with technology that can be understood as deterministic and inflexible.