Case Study: e‑Youth City Council Project an Alternative e‑Government for Young People

Abstract

This article presents an explanatory analysis of an e‑ Youth City Council project held in the town of Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, Catalonia, during the year 2008. The main objectives of this programme were to increase citizen participation, improve good governance and through it, the possibility of consolidating and strengthening democracy by ICT use. This case study was based on a survey of 628 young people aged between 14 and 18. The aim was to motivate and enable them to play an active role in politics and to take up positions of genuine authority and responsibility, within local decision making, as pre‑voting citizens. In this way, the young people engaged to develop all stages of the electoral process, participated in an e‑voting system and were empowered in local government for 15 days. In this case polity was translated into practice and created a successful partnership between young citizens and the local political parties. The focus of this ICT research was, basically, which tools the youngsters used and the influence it had on electorate participation In this way, the ICT acquired a new perspective relating to this study group who are considered a generation raised in a computerised era and who are leaders in the fields of innovation and communication, used as a common tool in their social life and work. The analysis is described and evaluated by explanatory variables such as; population, age, ICT use and access, number of voters and abstentions, the ajuntamentjove.cat website , political party blogs, electoral campaign spots and meetings, the electronic voting system and finally the video " Youth Government Constitution" broadcast by internet into the school classroom. Electronic voting has been incorporated as a pilot test, consisting of a voting system of closed lists with a choice of up to two preferential candidates.