Overcoming the Limited Access Order: A Comparative Analysis of E-Petition Platforms in Estonia and Ukraine

This paper compares the creation and implementation process of two electronic portals for collective legislation proposals by citizens - the Citizen Initiative Portal rahvaalgatus.ee in Estonia and the Electronic Petitions for Citizens in Ukraine. Both portals were created as a result of a crisis triggered by political corruption. In Estonia, series of scandals around illegal political finance led to mass protests that culminated in the People’s Assembly 2013 – the citizens’ co-creation process proposing legislative changes on political input side incl. elections, political finance, public participation in political decision-making. Rahvaalgatus.ee was launched in 2016 as one of three successful proposals conducted by the Citizen’s Assembly. The implementation of electronic petitions in 2015 in Ukraine followed the so-called Revolution of Dignity. One of the main claims that protestors had in early 2014 was dismissing corruption political regime of the former President of Ukraine V. Yanukovych. In order to strengthen democratic decision-making after the revolution, a number of reforms including the one on electronic appeals has been initiated by civil society under the umbrella of Reanimation Package of Reforms coalition, and newly elected Government. Both initiatives were boosted by civil society and aimed at opening political system on its input side and enabling political influence for ordinary citizens by means of e-democracy tools of collective proposal. Corruption on the input side of a political system – the stage of setting legal norms – is difficult to counteract, as it is not illegal but illegitimate in most cases. Any meaningful change towards opening access to political decision making seems irrational from the side of political decision makers, who are on the “winner-side” of the limited access order. Low prospects for success, make it worth studying the exceptional cases of positive change with regards to corruption on the input side of political system. Anti-corruption efforts in this context are indirect, they aim at increasing political influence of citizens through opportunities to participate in political agenda-setting. In both initiatives under investigation, civil society played a crucial role in creating and implementing respective technologies, although fulfilling different functions: In Estonia, several NGOs moderated the broad citizen co-creation process. Also, the technology of Rahvaalgatus.ee and its management are maintained by the third sector. In Ukraine, main function of civil society was initiating a draft law and providing the expert opinion on e-petitions, while the government carried out all the technological development and maintenance with support of international donors. Semi-structured interviews, conducted with initiators, IT developers and implementors of the e-petition platforms, reveal different imaginaries behind the foundations and IT architecture of e-petition platforms: The idea of argument-based debating and open co-creation process, similar to open-source coding, shaped the technology of Rahvaalgatus.ee. This open, bottom-up approach differs from the expert-centered approach to e-petitions in Ukraine. This paper will explore the relationship between the different imaginaries of civil society activists’ and the material aspects of technology. The comparative analysis will show how activists' cultures influence creation of technologies and the reverse influence of such technology on related practices.