Online deliberation between the weak and strong public sphere

Abstract

The paper challenges the theoretical assumptions of deliberative communication in online contexts with two oppositional empirical case studies in the Slovenian web sphere: the governmental portal “Predlagam vladi” (“I propose to the government”) and the citizen portal “Danes je nov dan” (“Today is a new day”). The common characteristics of both portals, which were intentionally developed for the online gathering of public proposals directly from the citizens, lie in their combination of public dialogue with polling that results in final decisionmaking. However, a more detailed analysis and comparison of both portals also helps explain the crucial differences between the institutional or strong public sphere on one hand and the civic or weak public spheres on the other, which consequently limit the democratisation of public engagement in a digital context.