Internet as a Global Public Sphere and the Role of Parliaments during the Legislative Procedure

Abstract

The popularization of the Information and Communication Technologies brought deep changes in many areas of society. From the market to the public institutions, these significant and recent behavioral modifications has been dividing opinions and hopes in the overcoming of the current limitations imposed to social interactions without these technologies. Talking about the political representation and the expression of the democratic values is not different. It splits opinions about the present and the future in regards of political will and the exercise of popular sovereignty. This work starts first on a brief analysis on the concept of public sphere to inquire the possibilities of the Internet to be considered a true vehicle for the achievement of a global public sphere. Later, it is confronted with the problem of the current structure of the Net, more and more based in private interests, what imposes theoretical and practical challenges to the achievement of a true democratic environment. Finally, all this concepts are used to face the problem about the current role of parliaments in the legislative process in the functioning of the contemporary democracy.