Abstract
After the break of the new millennium, new possibilities of instant communication, cheap smart phones and ubiquitous internet access created a new kind of citizen - a well informed, or even from some point of view over-informed, e-citizen. This new form of information access modified the traditional model of decision making in the political process that was, until recently, based exclusively on the state or governmental institutions.
Today's democracies (polyarchies), besides traditional civil rights like freedom of expression, associational autonomy, right to run for office or inclusive suffrage, declare common right to alternative information from state independent sources. This enlightened understanding [Dahl 1989: 222] supports citizens to participate on the formation of the government's agenda as a partner or an opponent.
The activity of citizens in the decision making process primary depends on the theme of the agenda. Environmental questions or problems, especially in local area, can quickly mobilize specific parts of the population (primarily young people, mostly students).
A clash between the goals of the government and the expectations of these e-citizens will, in certain cases, spill over from this environmental level into the "main" political area (from the scope of political science). How lack of debate about a small park in Istanbul caused a huge nationwide demonstration can be documented by recent events in Erdoğan's Turkey.
Similar cases supporting this construction, concerning the connection between citizen participation, environmental agenda and wider political activism and decision-making change, can be found e.g. during the Hungarian protests against the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros project, that streamed into the formation of the democratic opposition to the communist party regime.