In this chapter we discuss the potential of e-democracy to address some of the current challenges facing the more traditional democratic processes; voter apathy, distrust of politicians, information overload, misinformation and disinformation, and inconvenience to name but a few. First we draw a distinction between the role of e-government (that is one of administration of services to the public) and e-democracy (the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to facilitate the political process), while acknowledging that there is some overlap between the two.

Then we consider the pro's and con's of migrating the core concepts of traditional democracies – debating, consultation, campaigning, canvassing, lobbying and voting – on to the digital ‘agora’. Perhaps, a major challenge for e-democracy is a technical one; that of security of the ballot and anonymity of the vote. But with the right will, vigilance and perseverance on behalf of the citizenry, these technical issues can be overcome. In conclusion, the Internet and the Web, per se, will not revitalize democracy, but the people may.