E-Voting and the Creation of Trust for the Socially Marginalized Citizens in Brazil

Abstract

Abstract: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been implemented in a quite intensive way in both developed and developing countries. In the discourse of the New Public Management (NPM), the principal role of ICT is to improve the delivery of public services to citizens and the distrust of public administration. In responding to distrust and the challenges facing the simplistic technological determinism discourse of ICTs in general and ICT for development in particular, building on areas of trust associated with economic development seems to have been emphasized. On the other hand, despite the influence of institutions in the design and use of ICTs as a compelling enabler of change mentioned in the theory of social shaping and the ideas of citizens’ orientation, where technological artifacts are social constructions, it seems to be evident that these institutions can reinforce the same technological determinism and trust. In this paper an attempt is made to show that the use of a technology like e-voting in Brazil has not contributed to improve political participation and the delivery of public services, despite the attempt to promote and create trust in e-voting. With a more critical view of trust, an attempt is made to show how institutions and technology are enmeshed in a structure of vested interests in the public sector in such a way that a fabricated trust is created smoothly.