Politische Diskurse online

Political discussions online develop in very different forms: some turn out to be respectful and well-informed, while others are characterised by disrespect and stereotyping. Where do these differences come from? This book answers this question by analysing three German e-participation tools and reveals that discourse quality is influenced by factors relating to the (1) discussions themselves, (2) participants and (3) to participative design. The results show, for example, that the discussion outline (as the basic text the discussion refers to) heavily influences the tone and degree of information in the debate and that it is crucial for participants to know the shortcomings of and the opportunities created by them influencing political decisions through participation. As regards design, it becomes clear that greater impediments to participation result in a higher quality of deliberation. This book analyses these findings with regard to deliberative theories as well as with regard to what they suggest for the design of participation tools.