New York, 15 September 2002.

Sustainable peace, both on national as well as international level, presupposes and comes along the principles of good governance and democracy.

The era of the information revolution brings new challenges and new chances for the overall relationship between individuals and society, for the design of policies, the governing processes and the application of the democratic principle.

Today's information and communication technologies, particularly the Internet, lie at the heart of knowledge dissemination and social interaction. Their significance goes well beyond their already established application for economic and business practices, for arts, science, entertainment and leisure.

It is now our historic challenge to harness the tremendous potential of the digital technologies, more specifically and systematically for political purposes. For enhancing the transparency and the inclusiveness of the political decision making process; For introducing more immediate and participatory mechanisms and procedures to track the pulse of the public in important issues and to narrow the gap between the political technocracy and the broad public; For boosting up the role of the citizen as the individual who on the basis of easily accessible information and available technologies is entitled to and capable of contributing actively in the shaping and administering of the public affairs. To that extent, digital technologies can and must be used not only to connect people of the world but its citizens. The cyber world should be deliberately structured and utilized for the emergence of an electronically functioning political community; for an e-demos, whose e-citizens articulate their views, communicate, exchange ideas, interact, assembly, address petitions and, one day, even vote.

There is no doubt that information and participation improve the delivery of government services, allow good governance to occur and democracy to function. Thus, an information society is apt to become a democratic society. In this sense, immediate steps to narrow the digital divide and to expand the information revolution everywhere in the world are not merely imminent economic and cultural demands but also deeply democratic political postulates.

In Johannesburg, nearly 2 weeks ago, Greece launched the first ever On-line Global Poll on Sustainable Development and Environment. Its key findings based on a sample size of nearly 25000 participants representing 144 countries and 12 major geographic regions are impressive: The vast majority, almost 60 %, of the participants rate economy and environment as the most pressing global issues, well ahead of terrorism and peace, just 19 %. For solving the environmental problems of the planet, double as many people locate the core responsibility in the local and national governments than in international organizations and programmes. And significantly, two thirds, 69 % of the participants are willing to spend at least 1 % of their income for environmental programmes, while 61 % evaluated the Summit, opposite to the many critical press reports, rather as a positive and important success than a waste of time and money by politicians.

Because of the already mentioned digital divide and the well-known inequalities in the world, the results of the poll are only indicative and can definitely not be seen as a perfect reflection of public opinion of all segments of the world's population.

The outmost value of the poll lies in its significance as a first bold experiment towards gauging, measuring and understanding public opinion on a global level. In this sense independent on-line polls provide a useful and important service to the world's citizens, with the objective to mobilize their active participation in managing the big challenges of humanity and, thus, enhancing the inclusiveness and democratic legitimacy of the political process. This reinvigoration and reinforcement of the principle of democracy in and for the information society is an imminent task, to which any modern democrat ought to feel committed to, by duty, conviction and heritage.