Zephyr Teachout writes an interesting op-ed in today’s Burlington Free Press.

Following an example from Estonia where “the legislature created a Web site called “Today I Decide” that tracks all upcoming legislation and allows citizens to propose legislation. If any citizen proposal gets a sufficient number of e-votes, the parliament commits to reviewing it.”, Teachout discusses the various ways we could “now use the Internet for engaging citizens in setting priorities, identifying problems, and drafting and passing legislation.”

She says we need to expand Web-based political activity beyond just election-focused work…

When people think about “Internet and politics,” they tend to think about elections — campaign blogs, campaign donations, and downloadable posters — but the real opportunities for leveraging the power of the Internet lie in transforming how politicians govern.

And she closes with what amounts to a challenge…

A little state like Vermont — following the lead of a little country like Estonia — can lead the way in using the power of the Internet to open up government and engage citizens in the messy, muddy, chaotic world of political decision-making, by bringing the life of politics, not just politicking, online.

She’s exactly right about this. And Vermont is the perfect place in the U.S. to experiment with getting serious about it.

The next two years should prove to be a very interesting and exciting time for Web-based politics in Vermont. There seems to be a lot of interest in looking for ways for citizen-directed political projects to become more relevant to a wider range of Vermonters.