Comparative elektronic democracy: The case of Spain and Switzerland

ICT has shaped and continues to shape every area of our lives with helpful tools, from the social domain to educational sector, and from economy to politics. Specifically, ICT and the technology it offers is starting a new era for democracy as it eliminates the distance between people. Through a variety of tools, ICT, against the impossibility of democracy, is showing humanity the true meaning of what all that democracy could be. Today, the political participation achieved using ICT is called e-democracy. Switzerland, governed by democratic administration since 1848, and Spain, which despite being new, quickly adapted to a democratic government in 1977, both use specific e-democracy tools. The purpose of this research is to examine the applicability of e-democracy using the examples of Switzerland and Spain who have two different democratic histories. In this proposed research, drawing off secondary sources (political academic literature, related indexes, news sources, strategy plans), it was observed that besides ICT's "internet security" problem, ICT serves democracy well. In the example of Switzerland, ICT made governing the country easier through serving democracy directly, and work is being carried out by taking the country's internet security into consideration. In this context, the e-government, e-voting and political attendance in Switzerland are drawing a considerable amount of attention. In the example of Spain, even though internet security was shaken with the "Pegasus Spy Software" scandal, the country's e-democracy tools of e-government, e-political party and the local "decide.madrid.es" portal are important beginnings in the name of e-democracy. As a result of this research, it has been determined that ICT is an enormous tool that can be shaped according to its purpose.