Broadening Participation Through E‐Petitions? An Empirical Study of Petitions to the German Parliament

Abstract

Abstract Petitioning is a well established form of political participation in most liberal democracies, but little is known about petitioners, their socio‐demographics, motivations and assessments of petitioning processes. In 2005, the German parliament introduced public e‐petitions which are submitted, signed and discussed on the Internet. This article reports a 2007 survey of 571 traditional and 350 e‐petitioners. The results indicate that both petitioner samples are characterised by an above average level of general political participation and Internet use. Users of the e‐petition system are younger than traditional petitioners, but the group continues to be dominated by men and those with higher levels of formal education than traditional petitioners. E‐petitions seem to amplify existing inequalities in participation patterns as they predominately attract highly mobilised and politically active individuals with a disproportionately high socio‐economic status.

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