Hany Abdelghaffar and Lobna Sameer
network‐based groups takes over or replaces traditional institutions that could lose their power against the network‐based groups . Liberal e‐democracy occurs when citizens participate in the decision‐making processes with agendas that have been set by the government itself . Finally , deliberative e‐democracy considers that both citizens and government are connected in the decision‐making processes . Accordingly , politicians and citizens share their ideas in a dialogue and thus can form a shared political opinion . Deliberative e‐democracy represents a perfect model for e‐democracy as the co‐operation between citizens and politicians represents and explains the display of power for both sides .
Williamson ( 2007 ) explains the lifecycle of e‐democracy and how it emerges and develops in a society . In his model , Williamson identified a group of different users with different roles who will map the e‐democracy lifecycle . There are four primary roles that could be played by actors or citizens in the e‐democracy lifecycle : reformer , rebel , citizen , and change agent . These four roles are very important in order to sustain and ensure social movements to e‐democracy . An efficient social movement to have a functional electronic democracy system will require responsible citizen . The rebels have the power and the willingness to protest against founded policies while change agents are put in place in order to educate and organize the public to become fully aware of the changes . In order to complete the system , we are in need of reformers who will have to integrate ideas ( Williamson , 2007 ).
The e‐democracy lifecycle model is not limited to identifying the actors ’ roles only , but it introduced five stages of change to be able to adopt a successful e‐democracy system ( figure 1 ).
• Stage 1 : pre‐contemplation , in which the person will not be aware to how extent this change will be needed .
• Stage 2 : the contemplation stage , in which there will be some awareness of the change , is necessary and should occur .
• Stage 3 : the preparation at which the people become receptive to the change that will occur .
• Stage 4 : the action stage occurs when the people are engaged in the change processes as the change will be taking place .
• Stage 5 : finally , the maintenance stage at which the change has been complete and looking for new ways to maintain it is in progress .
Figure 1 : E‐democracy life cycle ( Williamson , 2007 )
Applying e‐democracy differs greatly from developed to developing countries . In developing countries , for example , the digital divide is an issue that could negatively affect the success of e‐democracy ( Coldow , 2004 ; Riley , 2003 ). The Internet reach in many developing countries ranges from 1 % to 5 % of a country ’ s population ( Riley , 2003 ). Consequently , when citizens don ’ t have the same computer literacy skills or Internet access
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