EMPOWERING CITIZENS’ VOICES IN THE ERA OF E-GOVERNMENT: IMPLICATIONS FROM SOUTH KOREAN CASES

The rise of the Internet sparked an intense debate on the democratic potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This research illustrates how web technologies enable ordinary citizens to articulate their interests in policy processes and enhance the organizational intelligence of local governments. The two South Korean cities introduced in this article adopted internet applications that allowed citizens to contact public officials or city mayors directly, resulting in dramatic increases in online civic input into local governance. Citizens’ political efficacy was encouraged both by government feedback and by the system that enabled their evaluation of the feedback. Despite the substantive contributions of the applications to local governance, formalistic responses from some public officials indicate challenges in building citizens’ trust in government through the use of ICTs. To address the challenges, it is necessary to cultivate the innovative leadership of senior public mangers and develop the institutional mechanisms encouraging public officials’ sincere responses to citizens’ online requests.E-government, Internet, Citizen Participation, Civic Engagement, Urban Governance.

Applying Business Models for Risk Management in E-Business

This paper presents a case study of the application of business models for managing risk in the development of operational strategies for e-business. It includes issues of security, transaction protection, customer relationships, and data and content ownership. The investment that an e-business project is willing to make in risk management activities depends on the business model adopted, the experience of the project team, and the constraints imposed on both. This is particularly important when planning to use technology to do business in the global economy

Facilitating the monitorial voter

Websites for monitoring the past performance of elected representatives in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands are analysed according to how they meet the voters’ information needs. The case study reveals two distinct models of information provision. One model supports the evaluation of the enactment of election programmes by political parties, the other model supports the monitoring of the performance of individual representatives in terms of the voters’ current preferences. Guidelines are suggested for the design of retrospective voter information websites

Electronic participation and its relationship with e-government, government effectiveness and accountability

No alvorecer do século XXI, os modelos tradicionais já não conseguem dar respostas satisfatórias às demandas da sociedade, precipitando uma nova reinvenção do Estado. Esse período corresponde, por um lado, à emergência de modernas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC), ubíquas e interativas. Por outro lado, essa fase é marcada pela crescente fragmentação do poder estatal, em paralelo com o aumento proporcional de regimes democráticos no mundo. Nesse contexto, emerge a “Governança Responsiva”, modelo orientado por princípios de responsabilização, transparência e participação, no qual a efetividade se vincula a seu atributo-chave: a responsividade. Portanto, torna-se fundamental aprofundar o entendimento dessa mudança de paradigma, em particular no que tange ao papel desempenhado pelo governo. O presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar as relações entre a participação eletrônica e três aspectos-chave: governo eletrônico, efetividade governamental e responsabilização dos agentes públicos (accountability). Para tanto, lançou-se mão de uma abordagem dedutiva e objetiva da qual derivou uma estratégia de trabalho de natureza quantitativa, com emprego do método de análise bivariada denominado correlação linear de Pearson. Em suma, constatou-se que altos índices de desenvolvimento do governo eletrônico estão correlacionados a altos índices de participação eletrônica. Além disso, verificou-se que quanto mais elevado o nível de participação eletrônica, mais elevado o nível de efetividade governamental e também de responsabilização dos agentes públicos.At the dawn of the XXI century, traditional models are no longer able to give satisfactory answers to the society demands, precipitating a new reinvention of the State. This corresponds, on the one hand, to the emergence of modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), ubiquitous and interactive. On the other hand, this phase is marked by the increasing fragmentation of State power in parallel with the proportional increase of democratic regimes around the world. In this context emerges the “Responsive Governance”, a model driven by principles of accountability, transparency and participation, where effectiveness is linked to its key attribute: responsiveness. This article aims to analyze the relations between electronic participation and three key aspects: e-government, government effectiveness and accountability. To do so, it employed a deductive and objective approach which derived a working strategy of quantitative nature using a bivariate analysis method called the Pearson correlation. In short, it was found that high rates of development of government are correlated with high levels of electronic participation. Furthermore, it was found that the higher the level of electronic participation the higher the level of government effectiveness and also accountability

ICT and the Democratization Process in North Africa: Tool of Freedom or Instrument of Oppression?

The events of the Arab Spring sent a wave of revolutions, followed by the start of an early democratization process, through many countries of the Middle East and North Africa. What stood out was the extensive use of ICT, which played a crucial role during the uprisings. Tunisia, the place where it all began, is no exception to this as ICT played a key role during the uprisings of the “jasmine revolution”, whose outcome has led to the early and fragile stages of a democratization process. This thesis investigates the impact the use of ICT has had on the democratization process in Tunisia during the Arab Spring and onwards. It uses Larry Diamond’s book “Developing Democracy: Towards Consolidation” (1999) and what he outlines as the ten components of a liberal democracy as the main theoretical framework that guides the analysis. The empirical material will be analyzed within a case study design. This thesis concludes that ICT has had both positive and negative impacts on Tunisia’s democratization process. However, the positive impacts seem to largely outweigh the negative ones thus far and it could be speculated that ICT will continue being a tool that is mostly conducive towards democracy