Promoting citizen participation to disseminate legislative proposals online in Peru: The case of the virtual platform ¡Legisla, peruano!

Abstract

In the network, information and knowledge society, people could actively participate in politics if they had the means and tools to make use of their citizen’s rights. This research approaches the use of Internet technologies, through the creation of virtual platforms, with the aim of evaluating their functionality as a means of bringing citizens and politicians closer together. In this regard, the university project of the Political Marketing course is taken as a case study, belonging to the study program of the Social Communication School of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, ¡Legisla, peruano! which originated in the context of the political crisis that Peru went through in the second semester of 2019 when President Martin Vizcarra ordered the dissolution of the Congress of the Republic and the call for extraordinary parliamentary elections in January 2020. The relevance of this work lies in the fact that there are no studies on citizen participation proposals outside the channels established by the governments themselves. The results reveal that, through a non-governmental web platform, it is possible to inform citizens about legislative processes so that they can participate in the presentation of their legislative initiatives according to their needs and interests. This article also presents the dissemination strategies used to position the platform and thus generate interaction.