Course Title:    Doctor of Philosophy in Government

Thesis Title:     A Comparative Study of e-Democracy Practices in Australia and in South Korea: cross-country practices in top-down perspective and bottom-up perspective.

Supervisors:    Dr Anni Dugdale, Professor John Halligan & Dr Loong Wong

Abstract:

The many challenges of using ICTs in the political arena have attracted considerable interest and debate since the 1990s. Early research focuses on the leadership in the use of new technologies for democratic purposes such as website of political institutions, development of e-government services or public administration reform. The recent e-democracy researches have changed to look at citizens’ participation as a part of solving the problems of representative democracy, particularly disconnection between representatives and people and declining political interests. Along with the recent research issues, the frameworks and practices of e-democracy have emphasized the regional specialized factors.

These research trends provide an important starting point for international comparative research of e-democracy. Especially, the research seeks to explore and compare the practices of e-democracy in Australia and South Korea and analyse the reasons of differences on e-democracy practices in the two countries. Importantly, the outcome and contribution of the research can provide the important factors to shape the national e-democracy practices and the findings can suggest considerations to other countries where shape their own e-democracy.

Biography:

Hyejung (Binni) Kang is a Ph.D candidate in the Faculty of Business and Government at the University of Canberra. She is basically interested in the effects of the information communication technologies in the political arena, especially citizens’ participation in the political decision-making process. She is now interested in the different practices of e-democracy in Australia and in South Korea.