The Interslavic language as a tool for supporting e-democracy in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

The quality of information systems to support democracy and public administration in the Slavic countries between Western Europe and Russia can be improved through the use of Interslavic, a zonal constructed language that can successfully replace English as a regional lingua franca, enhance participation and improve the overall quality of ICT used for e-Democracy assignments. Its potential role in improving computer translation between fusional languages with free word order by means of graph-based translation is discussed as well. This paper gives an overview of the pros and cons of various language options and describes the results of public research in the form of surveys, as well as the practical experiences of the authors. Special emphasis is given to the crucial role played by education: it is assumed that language, e-democracy, and education form a triangle of three inseparable, interdependent entities. Finally, the paper describes how these ideas can be developed in the future.