E-democracy and Socio-economic Development

In its ideal, an e-society is a society where technology is fully accepted by the public in all aspects of daily life. Though this ideal may still be some time away, many aspects of the e-society are already in common use or are starting to become widely implemented. This includes e-government, e-democracy, e-information, e-service, e-participation, etc., which have the potential to greatly impact socioeconomic development. In this paper we explore how these innovative e-technologies may transform society in both developed and emerging economies and be used to avert social exclusion from democratic decision-making. Based on literature review, we define several commonly used e-concepts and illustrate their relevance to socio-economic development with practical application examples around the world. We conclude our paper by pointing to several promising research opportunities.