Experiences in e-participation: A new perspective for democracy

The paper illustrates the evolution of the different concepts of e-government, edemocracy and, finally, e-participation, lead by the European Union initiatives and analyzes the progress of the Italian government and other pro-active countries, to involve people to express their opinions, at different levels of interaction, ranging from a "topdown" to a "bottom-up" approach. The analysis faces the main aspects of the involvement of citizens in the decisionmaking process, as security, privacy, respect of freedom and human rights and wants to give an overview on the various opinions of authors and on the strategic actions undertaken by the public administrations. © 2011 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.