E-lectoral Engagement: Maintaining and Enhancing Democratic Participation Through Social Media

This study, conducted in 2012, was commissioned and funded by the Australian Electoral Commission, and is published here with the Commission’s permission. It critically examined experimental and trial uses of social media by State electoral commissions in Australia and Elections New Zealand to engage youth and disengaged citizens in democratic processes.

The study also compared uses of social media for democratic engagement internationally, including during the 2010 London mayoral election and studies such as Youth Electoral Engagement in Canada(2011).

It found progressive attempts and initiatives to reach out to citizens through these new forms of interactive media, but this was tempered by an event-focussed approach in which electoral commissions mainly talked to citizens about voter registration and voting when they chose to, rather than establishing an ongoing dialogue about political participation.

Also, the study reported that young people, in particular, seek maximalist democratic participation, including micro-participation in direct action, rather than minimalist participation in periodic elections. Furthermore, international research indicates that young people often adopt agonistic methods of democratic participation rather than rational debate advocated and idealised in the deliberative public sphere.

The report concluded that social media can be used to some extent to support existing political processes and institutions but, to a significant extent, use of social media by existing political institutions and parties is a case of ‘putting the new into service of the old’.

The report is also available online through Australian Policy Onlineand the Australian Electoral Commission (links open external sites), and findings are reported in:

  • Macnamara, J. Sakinofsky, P. & Beattie, J. 2012, ‘E-electoral engagement: How governments are using social media to try to engage/re-engage voters’, Australian Journal of Political Science, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 623–39.
  • Macnamara, J. 2012, ‘Democracy 2.0: Can social media engage youth and disengaged citizens in the public sphere’, Australian Journal of Communication, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 65–86.
Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.