ICTs, public participation and social inclusion: trends and challenges in a digital society

In an increasingly digitalised world, there are numerous opportunities to improve democratic practices through online tools, which can be headed under ‘e-democracy’.
Fostering citizens’ participation in the democratic process is a key objective in the different territorial and political levels.
The new opportunities offered through technological developments (ICT’s) should be seized on to stimulate citizens’ involvement in the democratic process, which, together with ‘offline’ measures to improve citizens’ participation, ultimately aim to close the perceived gap between the /public institutions/goverments on the one hand, and citizens and representative organitations on the other.