Internet and political participation in the brazilian case: a research report

This article reports the trajectory of a doctoral research aimed to investigate how two central institutions in the Brazilian state promote citizens' political participation by using the internet. More specifically, the study investigated the participatory uses of digital media on the Brazilian Presidency website and on the House of Representatives website. First of all, the research catalogues the participatory tools found on both the websites. Then, one examines all these mechanisms by taking into account its political characteristics. Finally, the potential effects of citizens' participation on the political decision-making process are qualitatively analyzed. The research concluded that each of these institutions - the Brazilian Presidency and the House of Representatives - takes advantage of the digital channels of communication in different ways. This conclusion reinforces the idea that the actual uses of the internet and its devices are more significant than the latent potentialities of internet.