Affiliations: [a] University of Sussex, Sussex, UK. E-mail:
d.berry@sussex.ac.uk | [b] New College, Oxford, UK
Abstract: This article considers the implications that the use of free and
open-source software in government might have for democracy and public
participation. From a constructionist perspective, the democratic 'effects' of
non-proprietary software are contingent on how the practice of free and
open-source software is discursively represented and constituted as it is
translated into new e-government systems. On these premises, an analysis of
official discourse and government policy for non-proprietary software suggests
that its introduction into government will bring more 'politics as usual'
rather than democratisation. Nevertheless, on the basis of an alternative
discourse of ethics and freedom evident in the Free Software and Open Source
communities, the authors of this paper envisage circumstances in which the
discourse and practice of non-proprietary software contribute to opening-up and
democratising e-government, by protecting and extending transparency and
accountability in e-governments and by offering scope for technology to be
shaped by citizens and associations as well as by administrators and private
interests.
