political participation, internet penetration, activeness of voters, development of information communication technologies, election
Abstract
Active political participation in the process of democratic governance provides citizens an opportunity to influence elections and control politician's work. The aim of this article was to identify the impact of internet on political participation of voters in Lithuania. The tendencies of internet penetration and activeness of voters were analysed. Furthermore causal relations between political participation in 2007-2012 elections and factors of internet penetration (hosehold with internet access and individuals, who used internet daily or at least once per week) were analyzed in this article. According to this study relation between activeness of voters in 2007-2012 election and factors of internet penetration was found. After division of election according their types, the relation was observed only in the election of Parliament. It is noted, that further internet penetration and more active application of electronic democracy forms will give bigger opportunities to participate in policy for electors who have the internet.
