The involvement of citizens in policy-making remains too often associated with short-termism and populism.

It is difficult to engage citizens in policy discussions in the first place: public policy issues are not generally appealing and interesting as citizens fail to understand the relevance of the issues and to see "what's in it for me". The decline in voters turnout and the lack of trust in politicians reflects this. More importantly, there are innumerable cases where the "right" policies are not adopted because citizens "would not understand" or because it is not politically acceptable.

While the Internet has long promised an opportunity for widespread involvement, e-participation initiatives often struggle to generate participation. Participation is often limited to those that are already interested in politics, rather than involving those that are not.

When participation occurs, online debates tend to focus on eye-catching issues and polarized positions, in part because of the limits of the technology available. It is extremely difficult and time consuming to generate open, large scale and meaningful discussion.