PhD Thesis on
eParticipation and the theory of games
Communication and power – Kenya – Neo/Post informationalism
Citizen participatory deliberation systems imply devolution of power for the government. Why would bureaucrats – and in most cases also politicians be open and willing to delegate part of their power to the people? While in some cases politicians are ready to do so, in order to increase their consensus among voters, often even if they open the doors to participation and participatory deliberation, it does not mean that they will keep them open forever. Furthermore, bureaucratic power is based on knowledge of institutional mechanisms. If citizens gain access to this type of information and understand these mechanisms, bureaucrats will swiftly begin to loose their power. As a result, bureaucrats need to keep the different “information spheres” separate from each other in order to maintain their sphere of influence …
(from the English Executive Summary; the full Thesis can be downloaded in Italian language here: http://vincenzocavallo.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/eparticipation-e-la-teoria-dei-giochi.pdf)