The mechanisms of democratic participation provided by the new technologies of information and communication represent the possibility of widening the public space. The creation of channels such as online discussion foruns ans public consultations brings a promissing advance, but their results were not satisfactorily studied yet. This paper revises theories which have been supported investigations in this field, characterizes recent studies in Brazil and presents contributions to the an up-to-date research agenda, which considers the potential of the new technologies to the strengthening of democracy and indicates paths to evaluate if the technological support is adequately explored in order to help an effective insertion in the processes of definition and evaluation of public policies.
e-democracy; citizenship; public sphere; deliberative democracy; online discussion