A "virtual Commons" where voters can debate issues and quiz MPs online should be set up in a bid to fight voter apathy, an influential thinktank claimed today.
The specially commissioned report by Citizens Online and the Institute for Public Policy Research also calls on local councils to install kiosks where people can log on and give their views on issues affecting their town or region.
John Fisher, the chief executive of Citizens Online, said: "This is an opportunity to realise democracy online and should be at the heart of the modernising government agenda.
"This is not just about emailing the prime minister or watching a video stream of the budget - it's about creating a new and innovative component for representative governance in the 21st century."
The document, titled "Realising Democracy Online; A civic Commons in cyberspace", criticises the mass media for "sucking both the substance and spirit out of the politics it projects." It warns that this reliance on newspapers, TV and radio makes people sceptical about the quality of the information they are getting, and forces politicians to use soundbites to get a message across rather than spelling out their ideas in detail.
The report goes on to suggest that the internet has the potential for creating more of a dialogue between those governed and those in government.
"We feel that the needs of the citizen and democracy are not very well served by the present mainstream, mass media-based communication system," said Jay Blumler, emeritus professor of public communications at the University of Leeds. He is co-author of the report with Stephen Coleman, the director of the Hansard Society's e-democracy programme.
The report makes the point that the chancellor produces a pre-budget consultation paper which is only circulated in the City - it adds that if this was opened up to the web, more people and professions would be represented in the thinking behind treasury decisions.
It goes on to contrast an "inert and sulky" concept of citizenship where an ill-informed public switches off from political life, or an empowering dialogue between elected representatives and the people.
Prof Blumler said the age in which people were happy for politicians to make decisions without consulting them was coming to an end.
So far, politicians have done little to tap this surge of opinion, few MPs are contactable via email and even fewer have their own website.
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