1. Democratic Legitimacy and Recruitment Strategies in eParticipation Projects

This chapter approaches the complex relationship between eParticipation processes and democratic legitimacy by analysing several strategies for recruiting participants, a specific issue in the design of eParticipation processes with far-reaching implications. The central argument of this chapter is that the possibility of strengthening systems of representative democracy through eParticipation initiatives depends on the strategies used to recruit participants into those initiatives. First, a review of the theoretical discussion around strategies for the recruitment of participants and their normative implications for democratic legitimacy is presented. Thereafter, a broad empirical overview of eParticipation projects is carried out, surveying the diffusion of different recruitment strategies in local eConsultations. This is followed by a case study of the European Citizens’ Consultations (ECC). In the chapter’s concluding discussion, lessons are drawn from the ECC case, and a set of questions are formulated that should be considered in the design of eParticipation projects related to the normative implications of different recruitment strategies.