La administración electrónica. Un desafío del derecho a la participación ciudadana

Abstract

The new globalized social context and the lack of consolidation of public institutions are convulsed by the systematic advance in the lack of response to the demands that citizens make in the various areas of public administration. In the face of this, administrative law is looking for alternatives to improve not only from the conception of the relationship Administration/citizen, but from technological advances that are undeniable in all areas of life. With this, a new right is being developed, thought not only from the legitimacy of the acts of those who govern, but that allows the proximity of those who participate in the administrative life.

In that innovative search, we can find e-government, which involves not only the exercise of the fundamental rights of access to public information and citizen participation, but also the improvement in the provision of services by public administrations, achieving an agile interconnection, simple, timeless and facilitating in search of general well-being.

Thus, legislative, doctrinal and consultative advances are required at all levels of government, so that through the development of digital or electronic platforms citizens have access to information and public services. And there, remotely, they can consult, claim, suggest and initiate an administrative process or file. Such developments are already taking place around the world. We find new laws of administrative procedure as the 39 and 40/2015 in Spain, and its electronic portal of access through the official page, which provides several tools, among them, the «Citizen Folder». We find replicas of this, for example, in the Province of Córdoba in Argentina, through the «Digital Citizen» platform.

In this facilitation of access, the citizen finds the Administration closer and more committed; also, more transparent, since it allows to know information related to public officials, to recruitment, to the execution of the budget, etc. Despite the advantages of the implementation of electronic administrations, we find in them certain problems generated by socio-economic inequalities and knowledge, which should be taken into account by governments in order to ensure respect for the fundamental rights of citizens. e-Government or e-government is a challenge to which we must all contribute, because new technologies must serve not only for the accessibility of citizens to public information, which means giving governments greater transparency, but for a more agile satisfaction of needs.