Several specific notions of democracy are affected by the use of digital technologies. First, new information technologies - the electronic vote and the formation and actualisation of centralised registers of voters for example - make an impact on electoral democracy, understood as the institutional activities and infrastructure that make elections possible, and commonly known in the internet context as “e-government”. Second, the internet and new information technologies have the potential to allow for greater transparency and accountability, as well as for broader and more efficient forms of political participation, extending the reach of the “public sphere”; in this sense, they impact on deliberative democracy, which refers to participation by individuals in open debate in the belief that it will lead to better decisions on matters of common concern”. Finally, to the extent that these technologies facilitate a process whereby large disorganised groups of people organise and act to address specific social, economic or political issues, they may be seen as having an influence on the so-called “monitory democracy”, defined as “the public accountability and public control of decision makers, whether they operate in the field of state or interstate institutions or within so-called non-governmental or civil society organisations, such as businesses, trade unions, sports associations and charities”. To the extent that the citizens’ capacity to survey and self-organise for political purposes depends both on the information they can access and on their possibilities to deliberate and agree on a common agenda, the monitory democracy variables may be considered as embedded in the deliberative democracy category.