Putin proposes to introduce Internet democracy

Vladimir Putin today published another article with his ideas on the democratization of the state. In this article, he talks about e-government and Internet democracy.

I propose to introduce the rule of compulsory consideration in parliament of those public initiatives that will collect one hundred thousand or more signatures on the Internet. A similar practice operates, for example, in the UK. Of course, the anonymous Internet is no good for this - although in other cases it helps to identify public sentiment. It will be necessary to develop a procedure for the official registration of those who want to become a member of such a system.

Internet democracy should be built into the general flow of development of institutions of direct referendum democracy. It should be especially widely used at the municipal and regional levels. In each municipality not only direct elections of heads and deputies of the municipal assembly should take place. Assessment of the people should receive and other officials holding key positions. For example, following the results of the first year of work of the head of the district police department, the citizens of the district should be asked to express whether they want this person to continue working in their area. Similarly, you can raise the question of the head of the district center utilities. About the justice of the peace - if he is not elected by the citizens.
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It is necessary that citizens at the city, municipal level could vote, take out their acute problems to local referendums or online polls, identify bottlenecks and ways to embroider them.

A few words about the development prospects of the e-government project. Now any information is available to our citizens about political debates in parliament, the state of world markets, marriages and divorces of Hollywood stars. But they often cannot get information about their payments for housing and communal services, or see their hospital card online, or find out about their district police officer on the Internet.

The official website with information on public procurement has already become a powerful anti-corruption mechanism, many public services have also been translated into electronic format. It's good. But most people need vital information about their home, local area, nearby park, school, their municipality. It is necessary to pay special attention to the foundation of electronic power - the sites of municipalities and subjects of the Federation.

I propose that during this year the Public Chamber and the Council on Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of Russia should develop, hold a public discussion and make draft lists of information for clients that are necessarily posted on the websites of educational and medical institutions.

It is necessary to more precisely target the project “e-government” to the needs and demands of citizens. To fully disclose information about the activities of state and municipal authorities. Through electronic technologies to make the state mechanism understandable and accessible to the public.